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COKfRlGHT DEPOSm 



THE 

CELT ABOVE THE 

SAXON 



OR 



A Comparative Sketch of the Irish 

AND English People est War, 

IN Peace and in 

Character 



BY 



REV. C. J. HERLIHY 



f 



Angel Guardian Press 

Publishers and Bookbinders 

Boston , Mass. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 24 1904 

cuss <^ X\C No: i 
COPY B. 



Copyright, igo4 

by 

Rev. C. J. Herlihy 



INDEX, 



PART I. 

The Celts and Anglo-Saxons in War. 

chapter. ' page. 

I. The Celts. — A Glance at Their 

Early History r 

II. The Anglo-Saxons. — A Word on 

Their Early History. ... 7 

III. The English Conquest OE Ireland. . 13 

IV. Irish Victories Over the English. . 19 

V. Victories of the English Over the 

Irish. — A Tale of English Brutal- 
ity. . . . . . .28 

VI. Irish Victories Over the English in 

Foreign Lands 38 

VII. The Irish and English Soldier Com- 

pared. . . . - . - 49 



INDEX. 



PART II. 
Ireland and England in the Arts of Peace. 

chapter. page. 

I. The Poverty of the Irish. . . 6i 

II. Prosperity of England. . . .84 

III. Celtic and Saxon Architecture and 

Art 103 

IV. The Celt and the Saxon in the 

Realms of Science. . . .110 

V. A Comparative Glance at Irish and 

English Literature. . . - '^^Z 

VI. Celtic and Saxqn Music and Poetry. 144 



INDEX, 



PART III. 
Irish and English Character. 

chapter. page 

I. General Characteristics of the Celt 

AND THE Saxon. . . - - 163 

II. Irish and English Morality. . - 174 

III. Alleged Irish Intemperance. . - i93 

IV. Are the Irish an Envious Race? . 204 

V. English Unscrupulousness. . . 215 

VI. The Ever-Faithful Isle and the 

Land of Infidelity. . . - 230 

VII. The Future of the Celt and the 

Saxon 256 



To 

DIVISION 53, A. O. H., 

of which i hav,e the honor to be the 

First Chaplain, 

this little volume is cordially 

dedicated. 



PREFACE. 



SINCE the English conquest of Ireland many 
books have been written on various historical 
Anglo-Saxon and Celtic subjects; but so far 
as we are aware, no author has yet made a critical 
comparison of the Irish and the English races, their 
place in history, their achievements in war and peace, 
but above all, their character. It is thus that we can 
determine which is the superior race. It is not al- 
ways the race that is most successful in war which ex- 
cels; for the savage Goths, Huns, and Vandals, once 
conquered the highly civilized Romans, the masters 
of the world. But what most determines race supe- 
riority is grandeur and subhmity of character; but 
in every respect we shall find that the Celtic race com- 
pares favorably with the Anglo-Saxon. 

We know that comparisons are odious; but we do 
not make them of our own choice; they have been 
thrust upon us. For a long time the haughty English 
have been going around the world brow-beating the 
weak and boasting so loudly of their superiority over 
other races, but especially the Irish, whom they look 
upon as an inferior race, that a great many well- 
meaning people have come to regard it as a fact. 

Before the late Boer War knocked some of the con- 
ceit out of our English cousins, they imagined that 
there was nothing good or great in the world but the 
Anglo-Saxon race. Whenever anyone performed a 
heroic deed, immediately they deduced the inference 



that he must be "English you know." But if any- 
one was ever guilty of cowardice, straightway they 
formed the conclusion that there could not have been 
a drop of English blood in his veins. When Admiral 
Dewey sunk the Spanish fleet at Manila, they even 
declared that his success was due to English sharp- 
shooters, who manned his guns. But on the other 
hand, when the French ship, Burgoyne, went down 
on the high seas and the panic-stricken crew did not 
exhibit remarkable bravery in saving the passengers, 
again the Anglo-maniacs shook their heads and said: 
''Such a state of things could never happen on an 
English vessel." But most comical of all was a little 
episode that happened down off the coast of Hull a 
few years ago. Nothing can better illustrate to what 
absurd extremes Anglo-Saxon race pride can go. An 
Irishman, an Italian, and a Portuguese, in a small 
boat, set out in a raging storm to rescue a drowning 
man; and by great heroism succeeded in bringing 
him safely to land. But in the evening papers the 
event was described as ''A remarkable instance of 
Anglo-Saxon pluck and bravery." 

Yet these brave rescuers are the very men whom 
the proud Englishman looks down upon with contempt 
as members of an inferior race. Only a short time 
ago a certain Englishman flushed with wine, at a 
banquet in Boston, publicly made the statement that 
"all the Irish were good for was to make Enghsh 
domestics." That man would hardly have dared to 
say that if he were sober; but as the proverb says: 
"In vino Veritas." Yet what he stated so bluntly that 
night is the opinion of a great many other English 
people, if they only had the courage to express it. 



Not only Englishmen, but even in this ''land of 
the free and the home of the brave" we have a large 
number of Anglo-maniacs who have the very same 
idea. A few years ago, I happened to go over one 
evening to Harvard College, to hear the debate be- 
tween the students of Harvard and Yale. The sub- 
ject of controversy was "Resolved that the United 
States should grant their independence to the Philip- 
pinos." Harvard had the negative side and one of 
her debaters was a colored young man, who was 
certainly a very clever speaker; but whether he owes 
his cleverness to a little drop of English blood in his 
veins or not I cannot say. Whether he derived his 
Anglo-maniac ideas from that source, or from his 
school-books, or from^ his Alma Mater, which, they 
say, is the hot-bed of Anglo-mania, I do not know. 
But, at any rate, the sum and substance of his argu- 
ment was that the Philippinos did not deserve their 
independence, because they did not belong to the 
Anglo-Saxon race; for that was the only race worth 
mentioning that had ever yet lived upon the earth. 
Perhaps the shrewd young negro was only "playing to 
the galleries;" but he certainly gained his point; for 
his words were received with tremendous applause 
from the Anglo-maniacs present. It is needless to 
say that his side won. 

But, saddest of all is it to observe these Anglo- 
maniac notions creeping in gradually among some of 
our Irish-Americans and even Irish people who have 
lived here for a long time. Constant environment 
seems to have so infected them with this fatal microbe 
that some actually become ashamed of their own 
race and rehgion; and others go so far as to change 



the good old Irish name which they received in bap- 
tism, substituting for it the name of some English 
persecutor of their ancestors. I am convinced, there- 
fore, that the Catholic Church in America has lost 
more adherents on the score of nationality than of 
religion. A great many weak-minded people look 
upon the Catholic Church and the Irish as one and 
the same. But as they regard the Irish as an inferior 
race, they imagine, that by renouncing CathoHcity 
they will be with the dominant party. In America 
everybody wants to be with the winners. 

It is high time, therefore, that we accept the chal- 
lenge and make a real, impartial comparison between 
the Celtic and the Anglo-Saxon races, so as to dis- 
illusionise those unfortunates whose eyes have been 
dazzled by the glare of Anglo-mania. If our efforts 
contribute even in a small way to strengthen the weak 
spirit of any Celtic readers who may be wavering in 
their fidelity to faith or fatherland, our labor will 
not be in vain; for we shall have conferred a benefit 
not only on the Irish race but on the Catholic Church 
also. 

However, it is not at all our intention to offend the 
good, honest, plain people of England, who are the 
friends of Ireland and many of them the descendants 
of Irishmen. Some of our very best friends are 
English and as they are very estimable people, we 
should not for the world say a word to offend them. 
Whatever reflections therefore we may cast upon the 
English are not intended for them but for the English 
Lords and privileged classes who are the common 
enemies of Ireland and of their own race as well. 

It may be well to state also that whilst endeavoring 



to correct the abnormal pride of the Saxon, it is far 
from our desire to give the Celt an overweening idea 
of his own importance. Celts as well as Saxons must 
remember that themselves are not the only great 
people who ever lived on the earth. There are other 
races just as great. God never intended to give one 
race a monopoly of all the brain, all the brawn, all 
the virtues, all the perfections, and all the accomplish- 
ments in the world. Hence some races excel in one 
point, others in another. 

Our purpose therefore is, whilst criticising the 
weaknesses and faults both of the Anglo-Saxons and 
the Celts to point out to each the good quahties of the 
other, so that they may respect each other and dwell 
together as good friends and neighbors. In the 
words of the late John Boyle O'Reilly: 

"Indian and Negro, Saxon, and Celt, Teuton, and 
Latin and Gall, 

Mere surface shadows and sunshine ; while the sound- 
ing unifies all. 

One love, one hope, one duty theirs; no matter the 
time or kin. 

There never was separate heart-beat in all the races 
of men." 



INTRODUCTION. 



ON the eighth anniversary of our elevation to the 
holy priesthood, it gives us great pleasure to in- 
troduce to our readers our first pubhcation en- 
titled ''The Celt Above the Saxon." As this is our 
initial effort in the field of literature, we crave the 
indulgence of the pubUc for the many errors and im- 
perfections which, no doubt, appear in these pages. 
As these lines were penned hastily, at widely separated 
intervals, during the few leisure moments snatched 
now and then from the 'active work of the ministry, 
in a busy city parish, we make no pretence to any ex- 
cellence in Hterary style or polish. Neither do we 
make any claim to any remarkable originality of 
thought or research. The facts indeed are the same 
as of old; the only thing original is the plan. As the 
florist out of the very same flowers makes an infinite 
variety of floral designs, so have we endeavored from 
the old trite facts to design a new Hterary work. As 
far as we know, no other author has ever yet followed 
out the same identical plan. The first part of this 
little work is a comparative sketch of the Irish and 
English in war; the second part is a comparison be- 
tween the two races in the arts of peace; and the 
third part is mainly a contrast between them in 
character. 

It may interest the reader to know how we happened 
to start this Httle book. It was from the perusal of 
a book entitled : "The Priests and People of Ireland,' 



which vilely slanders our race and praises the English 
to the sky. But worse still, the author of this scur- 
rilous attack on his countrymen is himself a degenerate 
Irishman by the name of Michael McCarthy. It 
was mainly to refute his calumnies that these lines 
were penned. 

It was perfectly natural therefore that we should 
laud the virtues and perfections of the Celts and 
demonstrate how far superior they are in almost every 
respect to the Anglo-Saxons. Nevertheless, we have en- 
deavored also to be as fair, as impartial, and as 
charitable as possible to our Enghsh cousins. If at 
times our language may appear too severe in denun- 
ciation of England, it is because, like a great many 
of our countrymen, we consider her the author of all 
the evils of our native land; because we hold her re- 
sponsible for driving us from the home of our child- 
hood to a land of exile ; and because we saw so many 
exhibitions of her tyranny in our youth. Such con- 
siderations naturally fill the heart with feelings of 
bitterness and indignation which, even with all the 
graces of Holy Orders, it is very hard to repress. Yet 
we have striven to relate only the plain truth, not to 
exaggerate anything, and to be as moderate in our 
expressions as possible. Still we have no doubt 
whatever that if a man were to write a book like this 
in any country in the world beneath the English flag 
he would be cast into prison for life. But the arm 
of the tyrant is paralysed in this land of the free, where 
we enjoy the privilege of free speech. 

In the composition of this little pubUcation we are 
greatly indebted to "The History of Ireland," by 
Sullivan, "The Handbook of English History," by 



VIU 



Guest, "Ireland and Her Story," by Justin McCarthy, 
"Ancient Irish Schools and Scholars," by Bishop 
Healey, "Catholic and Protestant Countries Com- 
pared," by Father Young, C. S. P., "The Dictionary 
of Statistics," by Mulhall, "The Prose and Poetry 
of Ireland," by Murray, "The Irish Sketch Book " 
by Thackeray, and many other reference books in a 
minor degree. 



IX 



PART L 



THE CELT 
ABOVE THE SAXON. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Celts. — A Glance at Their Early History. 

THE words Saxon and Celt are generic terms 
and have freq\iently a very wide signification. 
Authors often use the proper name Saxon to 
designate not only the inhabitants of England but 
also those of Germany and Scandinavia. So likewise 
they include in the Celtic race not only the people of 
Ireland but also those of northern France, the High- 
lands of Scotland, and a portion of Italy. How- 
ever, we shall always employ these appellations in 
their restricted sense to signify only the Irish and 
English. 

Like most other nations, the early inhabitants of 
Ireland were not of one race; they were a composite 
nationality composed of three distinct races that came 
to the island in three successive waves of emigration. 
Where the earliest settlers came from seems clouded 
in obscurity. The next band of colonizers are sup- 
posed to have come at a very remote period from the 
land of ancient Greece, and indeed this seems not at 
all improbable, for in spite of all their persecutions 
by the English of later times, are not many of the 



2 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Irish the same briUiant, witty, generous, warm- 
hearted, imaginative sort of people as the citizens of 
ancient Greece? Moreover, anyone w^ho is at all 
acquainted with Irish and Greek cannot fail to observe 
how much the Gaelic tongue resembles the beautiful 
language of Homer and Xenophon, 

The last race of early Irish settlers, called Milesians, 
after their great leader Milesius, came from the east 
by way of Spain. There are many circumstances 
that seem to confirm this. As the celebrated Irish 
statesman and historian, Justin McCarthy, has well 
said: "The Irish are evidently of an oriental origin, 
being fond of out-door life, like all people beneath the 
sunny skies of the East and using their cottage chiefly 
as a sleeping-place." 

The exact location of our Milesian ancestors' orig- 
inal home in the east it is now impossible to deter- 
mine; but it is generally supposed to have been in 
Phoenicia, a country adjacent to the Holy Land. 
There are many circumstances which seem to indicate 
this. It is well known that the Phoenicians were 
amongst the earliest and most famous navigators 
and traders known to the antique world, and were 
always wandering in search of new homes, and found- 
ing new colonies. Between the nineteenth and thir- 
teenth century before Christ, they established many 
colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean; and 
are believed to have finally made their abode in 
Ireland. 

All the traditions of our forefathers appear to con- 
firm this hypothesis. According to an old Irish 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 3 

legend, during their wanderings in the East, our 
Milesian ancestors met the great Jewish law-giver, 
Moses, who miraculously cured one of their number 
of the bite of a serpent and predicted that his descend- 
ants would one day inhabit a country in which no 
venomous reptile could live. Every one knows that 
this land of prophecy is Ireland. 

There is only one fault with which we can reproach 
our Milesian progenitors — they won Ireland by the 
sword. Yet how different was their conquest from 
that of the Anglo-Saxons of later times 1 They did 
not come with any hypocritical pretence of reforming 
the country, Hke the EngHsh of a subsequent period, 
but in an honest, manly way to gain the island in a 
square, open fight. In fact their conduct to the earher 
settlers was chivalry itself. These claimed that the 
Milesians by coming upon them so suddenly had 
taken them at a disadvantage, and as they had no 
opportunity to be prepared to receive them, it would 
not be fair to win the island in that way. They stip- 
ulated therefore that the Milesians should again 
betake themselves to their galleys, withdraw a cer- 
tain distance from the shore and then, if they could 
effect a landing the second time, they should be im- 
mediately recognized as the absolute masters of the 
whole country. 

Like generous foes, the Milesians consented and 
having effected another landing, defeated the original 
settlers in a great battle and soon gained control of 
the whole island. But though victorious, they were 
very magnanimous to their defeated adversaries, 



4 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

for they allowed them to regulate their own afifairs 
and to enjoy what at the present day we might call 
Home Rule. Where is the Englishman who would 
treat his opponent with so much generosity? 

It is impossible to determine the exact date on 
which the Milesians settled in Ireland. But as bib- 
lical commentators state that Moses lived about 
fifteen centuries before Christ, and as the Milesians 
did not set out on their wanderings westward until 
the third generation after the famous prediction made 
to them by the great Hebrew leader, they are supposed 
to have reached Ireland about fourteen hundred 
years before Christ. To our modern readers this 
date may appear entirely too remote; but everything 
ndicates that the Milesian dynasty in Ireland goes 
back to a very early period. At the present day, our 
"English cousins" declare that the Irish are incapable 
of self-government, yet we know from the Irish 
chronicles that Ireland had an excellent government 
of its own fifteen hundred years before the Saxons set 
foot in Britain, when according to the testimony of 
Guest, one of their own historians, they were no better 
than "sea-wolves and pirates." In fact two thousand 
years before an English parliament was dreamed of, 
an Irish monarch had instituted a triennial parlia- 
ment to help him to govern the kingdom. 

Ireland also made great advancement in civiliza- 
tion under the Milesian dynasty. At the present day, 
after eight centuries of English government, agri- 
culture is almost the only industry in Ireland. Yet, 
nearly three thousand years ago, under her native 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 5 

kings, Ireland carried on a thriving industry in gold- 
mining, smelting, and artistic work in the precious 
metals, at a time when civilization had scarcely dawned 
upon other European countries. Even then our an- 
cestors knew how to read and write ; and their bards 
had cultivated the art of poetry to a very high degree ; 
though at the present day, after centuries of Anglo- 
Saxon enlightenment, the Irish people are reproached 
for their ignorance and illiteracy. 

But as every tide has its rise and its fall so every 
country has its day of glory and its day of decay. The 
period immediately preceding the coming of St. Patrick 
to Ireland may well be called the pre-Christian golden 
age of Ireland's glory. These were the days when the 
Irish warrior was feared not only in England, then called 
Britain, but even in Italy and France, It is well known 
that it was to protect themselves from the Irish that the 
ancient Britons, to their sorrow, invited over the 
Anglo-Saxons to help them. The Roman poet 
Claudian also relates how the Irish monarch, Niail 
of the nine hostages, came with his army thundering 
into France in the fourth century; and Theodosius 
the Great, then Roman Emperor, sent his General 
SteUicho against him. It is supposed that it was 
this Irish king who carried St. Patrick when a boy 
as a prisoner to Ireland and thus paved the way for 
the subsequent introduction of Christianity into Erin. 

Ireland's military renown was followed by three 
centuries of the most incomparable reHgious glory 
during which she became known as "the island of 



6 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

saints and scholars." But now dark clouds began to 
gather over Ireland. The kings of Ireland began to 
quarrel among themselves and it was the ambition 
of each to become Ard-Ri or king of all Ireland, over 
all the others. This sad state of things continued 
for hundreds of years. 

In the meantime, the Danes, then a nation of pirates, 
Hke the Anglo-Saxons, thought they would take ad- 
v^antage of the civil dissensions in Ireland to gain 
possession of the country. So they captured several 
seaport towns and overran a large part of the country, 
everywhere plundering and destroying churches and 
monasteries. Yet they were never able to give a king 
to the country; for in the eleventh century, a great 
Irish warrior. King Brian Bom, united all the Irish 
factions against them and inflicted upon them a crush- 
ing defeat at the Battle of Cloutorf. 

This annihilated the power of the Danes in Ire- 
land. But, unfortunately, as Brian Boru himself 
was killed in the hour or victory, the civil strife still 
continued in Ireland and paved the way a Httle later 
for the Saxon conquest of the country. 



CHAPTER 11. 

The Anglo-Saxons. — A Word on Their Early 

History. 

PEOPLE who are unacquainted with history have 
so identified the words EngHsh and Anglo- 
Saxon that they seem to imagine that the Anglo- 
Saxons always lived in England; but that is a great 
mistake. The first inhabitants of England were not 
English at all but a Celtic race Hke the Irish, called 
Britons, from whom the island received the name of 
Britain. 

These Britons were once a brave and war-like race 
and for a long time they resisted the arms even of the 
Romans, the conquerors of the world. At length, 
however, they had to yield before the superior genius 
of JuHus Caesar and other Roman generals. Then 
the Romans disarmed them and forbade them en- 
tirely the use of military weapons for hundreds of 
years. As a result the Britons forgot almost entirely 
the art of war and, when, in the fifth century the 
Roman legions were called home to protect their 
own country, the Britons were no longer able to de- 
fend themselves against the Irish and Scots. Accord- 
ingly, in an evil hour, they invited in the Anglo-Saxons 
to help them. 

Up to this time not a single Anglo-Saxon had ever 
settled in England. The Anglo-Saxons were then 
three Germanic tribes, comprising the Angles, the 



8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Saxons, and the Jutes; who lived in the southern part 
of Denmark, near the mouth of the Elbe. At the 
present day their EngUsh descendants may boast of 
their race; they may feel proud of their Anglo-Saxon 
origin, they may consider themselves fine ladies and 
gentlemen; and some of them may style themselves 
lords and duchesses; but let them not vaunt too much 
of their ancestors; for as Guest, one of their own 
historians, says: "At that time they hardly deserved 
a better name than sea-wolves and pirates." They 
maintained themselves then as they have done ever 
since, by robbing and plundering their neighbors; 
and they were accustomed to go ravaging and pil- 
laging even to the coasts of Britain. 

What an ally then for the Britons to call to their 
assistance against the Irish and Scots! The poor 
Britons were soon to repent of their terrible mistake. 
The Anglo-Saxon came as a guest; but before long 
he turned his arms against his host, under the pretext 
that the Britons were not furnishing him sufficient 
supplies, as they had promised. But when did an 
Anglo-Saxon ever have enough? Whenever he 
wanted to plunder his neighbor, he was never at a loss 
to find a plausible excuse, even to the present day. 

Accordingly, swords were drawn. The Britons 
and the Anglo-Saxons met in a great battle near 
London, about the middle of the fifth century; and 
of course the Anglo-Saxons were victorious. It was 
rather a massacre than a battle; for, as already ex- 
plained, during the Roman occupation the Britons 
had forgotten almost entirely the use of arms; so they 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON g 

were like a poor unarmed man held up at night by 
a high-way robber with his pistol. How different 
was the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Briton from the 
Milesian conquest of Ireland! Who has ever heard 
of the Anglo-Saxons betaking themselves once more 
to their ships, so as not to take their opponents at an 
unfair advantage, as our Milesian ancestors did at 
their conquest of Ireland? Yet, at the present day, 
we hear a great deal of Anglo-Saxon gallantry. But 
where was their gallantry in the conquest of Britain ? 
Where was the gallantry in conquering a poor dis- 
armed foe that had not handled a weapon for cen- 
turies? Where was the;ir gallantry too, after the 
battle? When our Milesian ancestors conquered 
Ireland, they gave the original settlers Home Rule; but 
what was the Home Rule which the Anglo-Saxons gave 
to the Britons? A wholesale slaughter. The only 
ones that escaped were those who fled to the remotest 
part of the island in Wales or Cornwall. 

Having conquered the island, the Anglo-Saxons 
changed the very name of the country; and as the 
Angles were the largest and most powerful tribe of 
the conquerors, they gave to the country its new name 
of Angle-land, which was afterwards changed to 
England, Their next step was to divide the country 
into seven kingdoms, each kingdom governed by a 
petty king; who was always at war with his neighbor. 
At the present day our Enghsh cousins ridicule our 
Irish forefathers, because at one time in such a small 
country as Ireland they had actually four kings. 
But it is well to remind them that England itself 



lo THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

was once divided into seven petty kingdoms. The 
English also at the present day reproach the Irish 
because they say they are continually quarrelHng 
among themselves; yet they should remember that 
one time these seven petty Anglo-Saxon kingdoms 
were making constant war on one another for four 
hundred years. Why did not the English unite 
among themselves during all these years ? Finally, 
they united it is true; but it was not a union 
of hearts; but unity brought about by force of arms, 
after one king of the heptarchy had thoroughly crushed 
the others and reduced them to subjection to him. 

It was a good thing for the EngUsh that they were 
thus united; because they had now to face a nation 
of sea-wolves and pirates even worse than themselves. 
These were the Danes. We have seen how the Danes 
put forth all their power to conquer divided Ireland, 
but were defeated ignominiously by Brian Boru. Yet 
the whole power of united England was not sufficient 
to withstand these same Danes. 

Instead of engaging them in honorable battle, as 
the Irish did, one English monarch gave them a bribe 
of ^TOjOon to remain away from him. But, having 
spent the money, they soon came back and demanded 
more. So then this brave Anglo-Saxon king had 
resort to a well-known English trick. He planned 
in one night to massacre all the Danes in England. 
The plot succeeded, but soon brought its own retribu- 
tion. A new swarm of Danes soon returned to avenge 
their murdered kinsman; the Enghsh were com- 
pletely defeated; and the Danes became masters of 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON ii 

the whole kingdom. However, they did not long 
enjoy their sovereignty; because very soon another 
race of robbers, the greatest freebooters of all, in- 
vaded England and gained the mastery over both the 
Anglo-Saxons and the Danes. These were the Nor- 
mans, a branch of the Scandinavian race that had 
settled in France and had learned from their French 
neighbors the miHtary science that had been taught 
them centuries before by their Roman conquerors. 
These three great races of marauders now combined 
to make up the English race as it exists to-day. 

They readily coalesced, }3ecause they were all of the 
same race, and religion and originally came from very 
nearly the same place. Yet, for a long time the appel- 
lation by which the Norman conqueror addressed the 
conquered race was: ''Dog of a Saxon;" and it was 
only after centuries that the three races entirely amal- 
gamated. In fact, even to this day, England has still 
her Lords and Commons. What are these words 
but other terms for the conquerors and the conquered ? 
No doubt many English lords have been promoted 
from the Commons; but nearly all are the descendants 
of the old Norman conquerors. 

Have not our English friends, then, much reason 
to be proud of their ancestors? A nation of robbers 
from the beginning, England has not ceased to plunder 
all the weaker nations of the world even to the present 
day. Before the Normans landed in England at all, 
poor unfortunate Wales had fallen a victim to English 
rapacity. But now the Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and 
Normans all united into one nation were to carry on 



12 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

one long struggle of plunder and devastation against 
poor unfortunate Ireland. Either of these robber 
races singly Ireland might easily have repelled. We 
have seen how united Ireland once drove the Danes 
into the sea; but as these saiie Danes conquered 
England, a fortiori, Ireland could conquer the Anglo- 
Saxons. But it was quite a different thing when these 
three robber races united and Ireland was divided 
against herself. Yet, however loudly our Anglo- 
Saxon friends may boast of their conquest of Ireland 
it is not to them that the lion's share of the honor or 
dishonor goes, but to the Normans. Whatever may 
be said of the Normans, they were certainly great 
warriors; they possessed the most improved miUtary 
weapons and were well versed in the science of war. 
All that Ireland could present against them was the 
invincible courage of her sons and the righteousness 
of her cause. 



CHAPTER III. 
The English Conquest of Ireland. 

THERE is not the slightest doubt whatever that 
the modern EngHshman has a supreme con- 
tempt for the Irish and everything that is 
Irish. Any person with half an eye can see that. A 
short time ago a certain Englishman flushed with 
wine at a banquet here in the Athens of America 
pubhcly declared that "the Irish were fit only to be 
hewers of wood and drawers of water." As the 
proverb says; ''In delirio Veritas." That is exactly 
the impression of most Englishmen if they only had 
the candor to acknowledge it. What is the underlying 
cause of this over-weening sense of superiority of the 
English over the Irish race ? It is all summed up in 
a few words — the Enghsh conquest of Ireland. 

Let us therefore examine and see what claim Eng- 
land has to any honor or glory from the conquest of 
Ireland. Indeed it is exceedingly difficult to see any 
reason why England should wear a crown of laurels 
after that struggle. In aU manly contests among fair- 
minded people there is an unwritten law that says: 
"Take a fellow of your size;" and there has never yet 
been any applause for the man that defeated an op- 
ponent smaller than himself. 

Now England contains 50,000 square miles; Ireland 
comprises about 30,000 square miles; that makes 
England nearly twice the size of Ireland; and it is 
reasonable to suppose that the population of each 



14 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

country was in the same proportion. Wlierefore, 
according to the most elementary laws of fair play, 
where is the glory for England in conquering Ireland, 
an island only half its size? England has always 
been very courageous in attacking weaker nations; but 
she is very careful not to attack a strong power unless 
she has another powerful nation as her ally. 

But even though far superior in size to Ireland, Eng- 
land would never have conquered her if she had not 
been divided against herself. As the gospel says: 
"Every kingdom divided against itself shall fall." So 
Ireland fell; but if she had only been united, she 
would have driven the English into the sea, as she 
hurled the Danes more than a century before. Where 
then is the glory for England in conquering disunited 
Ireland? Truly she deserves no more glory than a 
strong healthy man who overpowers another greatly 
inferior to him in size and with one arm broken and 
tied up in a sHng. 

From a military point of view, therefore, it is im- 
possible to see how England deserves any credit or 
honor for having conquered Ireland. Still less is 
she entitled to any glory from a moral point of view. 
On the contrary, her conquest of Ireland is the darkest 
stain in her character and, even though conquered, 
Ireland's behavior at that trying period is the brightest 
jewel in her crown. 

Ireland lost her independence in a glorious struggle 
for virtue and morality, in chastising a wicked king 
for the breach of his marriage vows. This was Der- 
mott McMurrogh, who eloped with the wife of another 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 15 

Irish prince called O'Ruarc. If this had happened 
in "merry England" it would have provoked only a 
smile; for when did England ever expel a lord or a 
prince for immorality? Yet nobody is ignorant of 
the moral standard of English high society for hun- 
dreds of years. 

But Ireland did not thus wink at the crime of 
McMurrogh. As old Pagan Rome, to her eternal 
credit be it said, for a similar offence, expelled even 
her own royal family, the Tarquins; so, all Ireland 
now rose up against McMurrogh and cried out: 
"Away with him! Away with him!" 

So McMurrogh was expelled from Ireland and im- 
mediately fled to England, to seek the aid of the 
English monarch, in order to regain his kingdom. 
King Henry II., who then sat on the Enghsh throne 
took up the cause of the adulterer and gave him a 
powerful force of English adventurers to accompany 
him back to Ireland. McMurrogh secretly hurried 
back to Ireland before them, in order to prepare for 
their landing. By feigning repentance for his crime 
and pretending that his only desire was to regain his 
kingdom, he rallied a powerful force around him and 
thus plunged the country into civil war. It was thus 
that the English first gained a foothold in Ireland; 
and finally conquered that kingdom. 

But now comes the question: on which side is the 
glory and on which side the shame in this conquest? 
Certainly England has covered herself with eternal 
disgrace in leaguing herself with an adulterer and a 
traitor to his native land. Only a little while before, 



1 6 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

that pious English King, Henry II., so bewailed the 
excesses committed in Ireland, because of her civil 
dissensions that he is said to have obtained from 
Pope Adrian, the only Englishman that ever sat in 
the chair of Peter, a bull authorizing him to pacify 
the island, and reform the abuses that were creeping 
in against religion and morality. Now behold him 
unmasking his hypocrisy in allying himself with 
Dermott McMurrogh, the off-scouring of Ireland! 

On the other hand, Ireland, though she lost her 
independence, was not at all dishonored. On the 
contrar}^ she covered herself with glory; for was it 
not more glorious to sacrifice even her independence 
than to tolerate such a monster as McMurrogh within 
lier borders? Yet if she had tolerated him she might 
have remained a free country even to the present day. 
But virtue and honor are better than even liberty and 
independence. Well therefore has our national poet, 
Thomas More, said: 

"On our side are virtue and Erin, 

On their side are Saxon and guilt.'"' 

It is no disgrace to Ireland that she has produced 
such a monster as Dermott McMurrogh; for have 
not all countries given birth to such pests; and even 
America has had her Benedict Arnold; just as Greece 
had her Ephialtes, and Rome her Catahne? 

It is unfair too, to infer from this episode that the 
Irish are always divided and quarrelhng among them- 
selves. No doubt the Irish have had their differences 
like other nations; for where is the nation that at some 
time in its history has not had its civil dissensions ? 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 17 

How many civil wars arose among the Hebrews, the 
Greeks, and the Romans of old? Everyone who 
has read history will readily recall the great contests 
between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, Marius and 
Sulla, Pompey and Cfesar. But why go back so far, 
when English and American history furnishes us with 
abundant examples? Besides the wars between the 
various kingdoms of the Heptarchy, which we have 
already mentioned, was there not a civil war just be- 
fore King Henry 11. 's reign between King Stephen 
and Matilda? Certainly he must have been very 
ungallant, to fight with a woman. It is only an Eng- 
lishman that would do it. Again England had her 
Civil War of the Roses, which lasted thirty years. 
Besides. she had her civil wars between King Charles 
I. and Cromwell and another between King James 11. 
and William of Orange. If a powerful foe had de- 
scended upon England during these intestine troubles 
the kingdom was doomed. In fact some English 
historians claim that the Normans would never have 
conquered England if there had not been a civil war 
going on just before, between King Harold and his 
brother, Tostig. But with such a record how can 
any Englishman point the finger of scorn at the Irish 
and say: "You Irish are always quarrelling among 
yourselves ? " Finally, is it not a melancholy fact that 
even our own beloved America, when not yet a century 
old had her civil war, and unity could not be restored 
until one part of the nation had crushed the other 
into a pulp ? 

How then can we blame Ireland for her domestic 



i8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

quarrels? Yet though divided against herself, con- 
sider how many centuries it took England to conquer 
her. The Normans had conquered united England 
in one 3'ear; yet it took them five hundred years to 
conquer disunited Ireland. Ireland was not com- 
pletely conquered till the time of Queen Elizabeth, in 
the sixteenth century. 

But in the meantime she dealt England many a 
staggering blow and defeated her best armies in many 
a pitched battle ; though usually in the end worn out 
by sheer force of num_bers. Yet, as we sometime 
meet ignorant Englishmen, who assert that the Irish 
never won a battle and that they cannot fight except 
when they are under "cool-headed English generals," 
in the succeeding chapter we shall recount at least 
a dozen pitched battles, in which the Irish defeated 
the English on the soil of Erin. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Irish Victories Over the English. 

N order to get a graphic account of the many vic- 
tories which the Irish gained over the English it 
will be necessary to consult a regular Irish history 
such as Haverty's, McGee's, or Sullivan's. We have 
chosen to follow Sullivan's because it is the latest and it 
was written for American readers. According to this 
history, the English met with many a disastrous de- 
feat from the hands of the Irish from their very first 
attempt to conquer Ireland. In the year 1172, 
Strongbow, whom Henry II. had sent over to Ireland 
at the head of the English, to restore McMurrogh to 
his kingdom, met with a signal defeat at the hands of 
O'Brien, prince of Munster, and was cooped up in a 
fortified tow^er in Waterford. Thereupon, the Irish 
rose up against the Normans on all sides and if there 
had been any central government at that time to give 
unity to their attack they would have driven the Eng- 
lish into the sea. But, as the Irish lacked simulta- 
neousness of action, the Norman power on the very 
point of extinction was allowed slowly to recruit it- 
self and again to extend its power at a favorable 
opportunity. But still more glorious was the victory 
won over the English under Lord Maurice, a few 
years later, by the Irish prince, Godfrey O'Donnell. 
The English were greatly superior in numbers and 
were accompanied by the flower of all the Norman 



20 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

chivalry, long the pride of England. But what the 
Irish lacked in numbers was compensated for by the 
genius of their general, who was one of the greatest 
commanders of the age. The two armies met near 
Sligo and the battle raged all day. It vain the mail- 
clad squadrons of England dashed upon the Irish 
lines; for before evening nearly all these lords, earls, 
and knights had been made to bite the dust. At last 
the English commander seeing, that in spite of his 
overwhelming odds, his case was getting desperate, 
resolved to stake everything in a single combat with 
the Irish leader. So dashing into the thickest of 
the fight he sought out Godfrey O'Donnell and dealt 
him a deadly wound; but the Irish chieftain with 
one blow of his battle-axe clove the Norman general 
to the earth, and he was carried senseless off the field. 
The EngHsh immediately fled in hopeless contusion 
and the Irish pursued them with great slaughter. 
Darkness alone saved them from being annihilated. 
Here was another grand opportunity for the Irish to 
have driven every Anglo-Norman from their country; 
but, unfortunately owing to their disunion, they failed 
to take advantage of such a favorable occasion. 

However, about the commencement of the four- 
teenth century the Irish chieftains at last began to 
reaHze that it was high time to put away their civil 
dissensions and to combine against the common foe. 
So they invited over a force of six thousand Scotch 
auxiliaries under Edward Bruce, to assist them in 
driving the English from their soil. The Scotch were 
only too willing to come in order to show their grati- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 21 

tude for the generous aid that Ireland gave them 
to win their independence at the great battle of 
Bannockburn, from this same hated English foe. Ac- 
cordingly, in the year 13 15, the aUied army met their 
English foes under Earl Richard, called the "Red 
Earl." This proud Norman had boasted that in 
a few days he would deliver up Edward Bruce dead 
or alive at Dublin Castle; yet, though his army was 
greatly superior in numbers, he was completely de- 
feated and he himself was glad to escape with his life . 

In the following year, the Scotch-Irish army gained 
another great victory near Kells in King's County 
over fifteen thousand EngHsh, under Sir Roger Mor- 
timer, by a strange coincident, the namesake of our 
present EngHsh ambassador to the United States. 
Ireland came exceedingly near bursting entirely the 
shackles of England and regaining her ancient in- 
dependence at that time. Only one city of any im- 
portance still held out against the Scotch-Irish army 
and that was Dublin. It was impossible to capture 
it for lack of sieging materials and the absence of a 
fleet that would cut off its supplies from England. 

Worse still, one of these periodical famines, owing 
to the failure of the crops, that visit Ireland now 
fell upon the country; so that she could no longer 
maintain an army in the field. As a result, England 
with all her resources finally conquered, Bruce was 
defeated and the great Scoto-Irish confederation 
dissolved. Irish unity melted away and the struggle 
against England during the next two centuries was 
carried on only by isolated Irish chieftains. 



22 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

We have a striking illustration of this during the 
reign of King Richard II. of England. It is really 
laughable to read the two campaigns which that mon- 
arch made against Art McMurrogh, the prince of 
Leinster. Though a descendant of McMurrogh, the' 
traitor, he well redeemed the name of his ancestor. 
Though he had only three thousand men against 
thirty thousand under Richard II., by means of his 
fabian policy he made that poor sovereign as ridicu- 
lous as the Greeks made "the great kings" Darius 
and Xerxes at Marathon and Salamis. 

Finally, as King Richard could not conquer him in 
the open field, he resorted to the despicable system 
of warfare practiced by England even to the present 
day; he actually put a price upon his head, offering a 
hundred marks in pure gold to the person who should 
bring to him in Dublin dead of alive the troublesome 
prince of Leinster. 

Yet for twenty years McMurrogh met and defeated 
the best English armies under the ablest English 
generals. In 141 o with a force of ten thousand men 
he fought a pitched battle against the Duke of Lan- 
caster, with an equal number of English soldiers under 
the very walls of Dublin and the English were defeated 
with great slaughter. So many were drowned in 
trying to make their escape across the River Liffey 
that this portion of the river is called the "ford of 
slaughter" even to the present day. 

The next great struggle for liberty which the Irish 
waged against England occurred in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth. It cannot be called a rebellion against 



l^HE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON z^ 

lawful authority; for it was an outbreak provoked by 
England herself by means of a diabolical plot, for 
which history has no parallel. 

In a period of profound peace, Queen Elizabeth 
feared that her power in Ireland would never be on a 
safe footing until all the warlike Irish chieftains had 
been killed off. Accordingly, she ordered her com- 
mander-in-chief in Ireland, Sir Francis Cosby, to in- 
vite all the Irish princes to a grand banquet; but no 
sooner did they enter the banquet hall than they were 
set upon by a band of English soldiers who had been 
lying in ambush and njassacred almost to a man. Of 
the four hundred w^ho had accepted the invitation only 
one escaped wath his life. This man very wisely had 
carried his sword with him and with its trusty blade 
hewed his way to liberty. 

Naturally this act of English treachery set the hearts 
of the Irish on fire to avenge their murdered country- 
men. So they fled to arms under the command of 
Hugh O 'Byrne whom the English called: "The 
Firebrand of the Mountains;" and before long they 
made the English pay dearly for their treachery, in 
the bloody battle of Glenmalure, in the year 1580. 

Lord Grey was now appointed viceroy of Ireland 
and sent over at the head of an imposing English 
army to crush the insurrection. He set out from 
Dublin at the head of his troops, in the same vain 
glorious way that General Buller lately marched forth 
against the gallant Boers. He thought only of ''hem- 
ming in the Irish." So he constructed a strong 
earthwork or entrenchment at the mouth of the valley 



24 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

to prevent the Irish from escaping. Then he ad- 
vanced to measure swords with the ''Firebrand of the 
Mountains." In the meantime, the Irish had posted 
themselves in a ravine on each side of the road through 
which the EngHsh marched, and not a sound escaped 
them until their foes were in the trap. Then all at 
once a fierce storm of bullets burst forth upon the en- 
tangled English legions; and like a torrent from the 
mountain the Irish swept down upon the struggling 
mass below. Immediately the English troops were 
thrown into the greatest confusion, then were 
seized with a panic and fled in the greatest disorder, 
many perishing in the very intrenchments which they 
had constructed to check the flight of the Irish. But 
of all the brilUant host that marched out of Dublin a 
few days before, only a few shattered companies now 
returned to tell the tale of disaster. 

But a few years after this. Queen EHzabeth had a 
still more serious outbreak of the Irish to quell. This 
was the rebellion of Hugh Roe O'Neil, the Earl of 
Tyrone. When this man was a child he had been 
taken over to England by order of Queen EHzabeth 
and trained up at her own royal court as an English- 
man; because she hoped that thus he might become 
useful afterwards as the tool of England in fighting 
some other Irish chieftain ; and in this way, by creating 
civil dissensions among his countrymen, he would 
render easy their complete conquest by England. 

But when O'Neil arrived at the age of manhood, 
went back to his native land, and saw how his people 
were tyrannized over and oppressed by the English 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 25 

Government, his heart was stirred within him. He 
found that though his education was English his 
blood was Irish and blood was thicker than water. 

Accordingly, he built up a powerful confederacy of 
Irish chieftains; unfurled the standard of rebellion 
and gave the English power in Ireland such a shock 
as it had not experienced for four hundred years. For 
ten years he defied the whole power of England and 
in several pitched battles defeated the very best 
generals that were sent against him. In the year 
1593 he had his first pitched battle with the English 
under General Norreys,. on a river-bank near the city 
of Monaghan. Twice the English tried to cross the 
river but as many times were repulsed, the English 
general himself being wounded. As a last resort a 
chosen body of English cavalry charged desperately 
across the river and their leader, a Goliath in stature, 
singling out O'Neil engaged him in single combat; 
but the gigantic Englishman pierced by his opponent's 
sword soon lay dying upon the ground. Then the 
Irish made one grand charge and immediately the 
English fled in hopeless confusion, leaving the ground 
covered with their dead and, worst of all, leaving 
their proud English banner in the hands of the Irish. 

Again, in the year 1598 O'Neil at the head of five 
thousand Irish troops met Sir Henry Bagnal with 
six thousand English, mostly veteran troops, including 
five hundred knights sheathed in armor of steel. 
These two armies engaged in mortal combat on the 
banks of the River Blackwater. Here O'Neil brought 
into play the strategy that he had learned in England. 



26 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Now he turned it against his instructors. He had 
some deep pits constructed in front of his Hnes covered 
over with wattles and grass; and when the gallant 
chivalry of England charged upon their Irish foes they 
plunged headlong into these trenches and perished. 
This unexpected disaster spread a fearful panic 
through the whole EngHsh army and they fled in all 
directions before the furious onslaught of the Irish. 
The English army was almost annihilated. Three 
thousand of England's bravest were left dead on the 
field; thirty-four English standards were taken, be- 
sides all their artillery; and twelve thousand pieces 
of gold fell into the hands of the conquerors. 

Hearing of these disasters, Queen Elizabeth now 
despatched into Ireland her own favorite, the Earl 
of Essex, with twenty- thousand men, probably the 
finest army that England had ever yet put into the 
field. Yet he was no match for O'Neil. He was de- 
feated in one battle after another; so that finally 
EHzabeth in a rage ordered him to the tower of 
London, where he paid with his head upon the block 
for his ill-success against the gallant O'Neil. 

Nevertheless, to the keen observer it must have 
been apparent that, in spite of all these brilliant vic- 
tories won by our forefathers, England must ultimately 
wear out the Irish by sheer force of numbers ; and that 
is exactly what happened. So in the following chapter 
we shall relate as impartially as we can the victories 
of the English over the Irish and the final subjugation 
of the island under Queen EHzabeth and Cromwell. 

However, we must not understand from this that 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 27 

we have now come to the last great stand of the Irish 
against their English oppressors. On the contrary, 
we might relate how within even half a century after 
this another O'Neil, Owen Roe, with five thousand 
four hundred Irish troops defeated General Monroe, 
a Scottish commander in the pay of England, with 
six thousand eight hundred men, near the city of 
Monaghan. The Scots fled pell-mell and so many 
of them perished in trying to escape over the Black- 
water River that tradition says you might have crossed 
over dry shod on their bodies. This glorious victory 
was won just before Cromwell landed in Ireland. 
Unfortunately, the gall4,nt Owen Roe O'Neil died 
soon afterwards; but if he had lived, even Cromwell, 
the butcher, might have had a different story to teU 
in Ireland. 



CHAPTER V. 

Victories of the English Over the Irish. — A 
Tale oe English Brutality. 

IF we search the pages of history, we shall find that 
during the first four centuries after the Nbrmans 
landed in Ireland they really gained very little 
foothold in the country, notwithstanding the civil 
dissensions of the Irish. There were only two very 
faint marks of English supremacy over the island; 
the first was the acknowledgment of the English 
king as the suzerain or over-lord of the country; the 
second was an English colony which Henry 11. planted 
in the eastern part of the island, henceforth called the 
''Pale." 

The first mark of English sovereignty over Ireland 
viz, the acknowledgment of the English monarch as 
the suzerain of the country, soon faded away, because 
it was the Irish Ard-Ri, or chief king of Ireland, 
Roderick 11. , that is said to have made this arrange- 
ment; but as there was no chief monarch of the country 
after his time, the treaty that he had made perished 
with him, and the individual Irish chiefs who had not 
bound themselves by this compact carried on the 
war with the EngHsh on their own responsibility. 

The second mark of English supremacy, viz, the 
EngHsh colony within the 'Tale," was also of very 
little consequence for hundreds of years. From the 
twelfth to the sixteenth century, or from the reign of 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 29 

Henry II. to Queen Elizabeth, the English colony 
had scarcely advanced a foot beyond its original 
Hmits. How can this be explained? Only on the 
hypothesis that the victories of the Irish retarded the 
spread of the English power. These are the victories 
which we have related in the previous chapter. 

During all these victories of the Irish over their 
English foes our forefathers always fought in a chival- 
rous, manly way. They never struck down an un- 
armed enemy, they never murdered a helpless prisoner, 
they never butchered defenceless women and children. 
In a word they never acted contrary to the rules of 
civilized warfare and hot even their worst enemies 
ever made such an accusation against them down to 
the time of King Charles 11. in the year 1641. What 
a glorious record, for our ancestors during five hundred 
years ! 

On the contrary during these same five centuries 
history tells us that the English gained about five 
decisive victories over the Irish and these victories 
were followed by scenes of barbarity and savagery 
which makes the very blood run cold. This was 
not the practice occasionally or periodically; but 
every time that the English gained a victory it 
was succeeded by a saturnalia of inhumanity and 
butchery that would freeze the very Hfe blood in one's 
veins. 

This uncivilized method of warfare the English 
commenced the very first year they set foot on the 
soil of Ireland and they have continued it ever since. 
Not only do Irish historians relate this but even Eng_ 



3© THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

lish authors themselves are forced to acknowledge it. 
Guest who was a college professor in London tells 
us in his: "Handbook of EngHsh History," page 
1 68, how the Enghsh acted after the capture of Water- 
ford. "One instance," he says, "will show how hard- 
hearted many of the EngKsh or Anglo-Normans still 
were. After taking the town of Waterford, they had 
in their hands seventy prisoners, the principal men 
of the town. There was a discussion among the 
leaders what should be done with these men. One 
of them named Raymond wished to be merciful and 
allow them to be ransomed ; but another having made 
a fierce speech demanding their death, his comrades 
approved of it, and the wretched prisoners had their 
bones broken and were then thrown into the sea and 
drowned." What a terrible tale of EngUsh barbarity! 
Who ever heard of another nation that claimed to be 
civilized murdering its prisoners ? Even Pagan Rome 
in her most corrupt days did not do that. It is true 
she made her prisoners into gladiators and compelled 
them to butcher one another but, at any rate, she put 
arms into their hands and gave them a chance to de- 
fend themselves. But it was reserved for enlightened 
England to murder her prisoners and Oh! how bar- 
barously! It was not sufficient to cast them into the 
sea, she must first glut her desire for revenge by break- 
ing their bones. Yet such were the people whom 
our modern fine English ladies and gentlemen are 
proud to consider their ancestors. 

Yet, terrible as was the slaughter at the capture of 
Waterford, still more horrible was the butchery per- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 31 

petrated by the Normans at the captiire of Dublin. 
The fate of Waterford had struck terror into the 
people of Dublin; so they sent an ambassador to sue 
for terms of peace and to arrange for the surrender 
of the city. But, Oh! unheard of atrocity, while these 
negotiations were in progress, the Normans burst 
into the city and commenced a most dreadful massacre 
of men, women, and children. Truly this is a grand 
commentary on Enghsh good faith and chivahy! 
Whilst holding in one hand the oHve-branch, the other 
hand suddenly and without warning draws the sword. 
But the gallant Englishman is not satisfied with strik- 
ing down an armed man; his chivalry prompts him to 
slay even defenceless women and children. Yet at the 
present day how often we hear of Anglo-Saxon cour- 
age, bravery and gallantry! But even the savage 
Indians of the forest did not slay helpless women and 
children. 

The next great victory won by the Enghsh over the 
Irish and their aUies was in the year 1318, when the 
English defeated the Irish with their Scotch alHes 
under Edward Bruce, near the city of Dundalk; 
and here, too, the Enghsh exhibited their usual gal- 
lantry. We should imagine that the English, if they 
had any generous spirit at all, would show their ad- 
miration for their gallant foe that had heretofore 
routed them completely in many a well-fought field, 
as wx have related in the previous chapter; for even 
the Indian admires a brave adversary. Not so the 
Enghshman. No sooner had Edward Bruce been de- 
feated and slain in battle, than they cut ofiE his noble 



32 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

head and sent it over to London to be set up on one 

of the spikes of London tower as a ghastly trophy. 
This was evidently not an isolated instance of English 
barbarity; for we find that a similar fate befell the 
head of the Earl of Desmond, who rebelled against 
England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, though 
he was not in the strict sense of the word an Irishman 
at all, but one of the Anglo-Norman colony that had 
settled in Ireland and become more Irish than the 
Irish themselves. We certainly admire their good 
taste, but what shall we say of the native English who 
do\^Ti to the time of the ''good Queen Bess," called 
the golden age of English history, had no better taste 
than to set up the heads of their fallen foes to decay 
on the spikes of the tower of London? Certainly if 
there were many trophies like that they must have con- 
tributed greatly to purify the atmosphere and who 
knows but they may have been the cause of the Black 
Plague and other epidemics with which outraged 
nature visited revengeful England and swept away 
thousands of her subjects as the punishment of her 
blood-thirstiness? At any rate what an inspiring 
sight it must have been to the rising generation of 
young English boys and girls to imbue them with 
lofty ideas of refinement, civiHzation, and Christianity I 
It was only towards the close of Queen Elizabeth's 
reign that Ireland was completely conquered by Eng- 
land for the first time. But Oh! by what unspeakable 
means that conquest was brought about! We have 
seen in the previous chapter how the gallant O'Neil 
for ten years defied the whole power of England, and 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 33 

as long as the Irish chieftains remained united Eng- 
land was powerless against them. Seeing that all 
her best generals had been routed by the Irish, one 
after the other, and that it was impossible to conquer 
the country by the sword, England now had resort to 
the well-known English maxim: '' Divide and con- 
quer." As a last resort Queen Elizabeth sent over to 
Ireland Mount] oy and Carew with instructions to 
use every endeavor to break up the Irish confederation 
by snares, deceit, and treachery of all kinds, by the 
most shameful bribery, and even by forged letters 
dexterously employed to sow the seeds of distrust and 
suspicion among the Trish leaders. In a word, they 
were to spare no efforts to create civil dissensions 
among them. Where the skill of the soldier failed, 
the wile of the serpent succeeded. As a result one 
Irish chieftain after another fell away from the con- 
federation and as a sad consequence O'Neil was soon 
afterwards defeated in a pitched battle by the English 
near the city of Kinsale. Then followed the most 
disgraceful scene in England's disgraceful history. 
We have seen in the previous chapter how Queen 
Elizabeth directed the Irish chieftains to be invited 
to a feast and slain in the banquet hall. A little while 
afterwards, she had another troublesome Irish chief- 
tain to deal with, John O'Neil of Ulster, who defeated 
her Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Sussex and carried 
his victorious arms even to the walls of Dubhn. How 
to get rid of him was the question. So the fertile 
mind of Queen Bess devised a plan. She wrote to 
Sussex directing him to hire an assassin to murder the 



34 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Irish chief; but unfortunately they failed to destroy 
their correspondence and it is still preserved in the 
archives of England. 

But these unprincipled proceedings were nothing 
compared to the butchery and spoliation of the Eng- 
lish after the Battle of Kinsale. A few years previous- 
ly that gallant courtier, that noble specimen of the 
polished Enghsh gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
ordered eight hundred prisoners of war to be cruelly 
butchered and then flung over the rocks into the sea. 
Yet after all, these were men, but now the English 
proceeded to the systematic extermination of the 
whole Irish people, men, women and children. This 
was not warfare but double-dyed murder. Yet we 
are not asked to accept this on the testimony of Irish 
historians, for Englishmen themselves are forced to 
admit it with shame. Froude certainly was no special 
friend of Ireland, for some Irishmen who are now 
living may remember how some years ago be came out 
to A]n erica to vilify their native land and the great 
Dominican, Father Burke, followed him to refute his 
viHfications. Yet this is what he says in his History 
of England, X, page 5-^8, concerning the EngHsh 
barbarities perpetrated in Ireland during the reign of 
Ehzabeth: "The Enghsh nation was shuddering 
over the atrocities of the Duke of Alva in Holland. 
Yet Alva's bloody sword never touched the young, 
the defenceless, or those v/hose sex even dogs can 
recognize and respect. Sir Peter Carew, the Enghsh 
commander, has been seen murdering women, and 
children and babies that had scarcely left the breast. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 35 

It was no fault of the English if any Irish child of that 
generation was allowed to live to mankind." Thus 
did the English out-Herod Herod. He murdered the 
innocents, but only those of one locality and only 
such as were not over two years of age; but here we 
find a nation caUing itself enlightened, civiHzed, and 
Christian murdering a race wholesale. 

The campaign of Cromwell in Ireland was but a 
repetition of the atrocities committed under Queen 
EHzabeth, only intensified, if that were possible. 
With the bible in one hand and the sword in the other, 
he marched through the island butchering helpless 
women and children, with a ferocity which would 
make the blood run cold. Every schoolboy knows of 
his dreadful massacres at Drogleda and Waterford, 
the details of which would sicken the heart. The 
historian, Prendergast, though himself of EngHsh 
descent, is forced to confess that: "Such scenes were 
not witnessed since the Vandals conquered Spain." 

Finally, having satisfied his thirst for blood he 
seized a hundred thousand Irish, many of them young 
boys and girls of tender years and transported them 
as slaves to the West Indies; but the rest of the in- 
habitants he drove into the most barren and desolate 
corner of the Island telhng them in his brutal way 
''to go to Hell or Connaught." But the Irish warriors 
amounting to forty thousand men he banished into 
Spain. 

Nevertheless, even the butcheries of Cromwell could 
not break the heroic spirit of our ancestors. Our 
English cousins sometimes call the Irish a wild, law- 



36 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

less race. Yet it was in defence of their sovereign, 
Charles I., that they took up arms against Cromwell. 
So a half century afterwards, Hke loyal subjects, they 
again took up arms in defence of their king, James 
II., when his own subjects deposed him, not because 
of any crime, but on account of his reUgious convic- 
tions. 

It is true that the Orangemen can boast that they 
beat the Irish at the battle of the Boyne; but where 
is the glory in veteran troops, the best equipped in 
Europe, defeating a handful of poorly-armed and 
badly organized peasantry, aided by a few companies 
of French regulars? But if the Irish were defeated 
at the Boyne, they covered themselves with glory at 
the siege of Limerick, for they drove King William 
with his army of veterans pell-mell from the city; 
and the women of Limerick deserve as much credit 
as the men, for, Hke true heroines, they fought side by 
side with their husbands. 

Where is the glory of England in tyrannizing over, 
despoiUng, and butchering such a gallant and heroic 
race? Is it not rather the darkest stain in her char- 
acter? If England only knew enough to conciHate 
that noble race, they would be her strongest bulwark 
and defence. Instead of that, her oppression of the 
Irish at home has driven them forth to strengthen the 
hands of England's enemies in foreign lands. When 
brute force finally triumphed in King WilHam's war, 
twenty thousand more Irish warriors went over as 
exiles to France and were incorporated into the French 
army. It is well known how some years later there 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 37 

set in a regular exodus of Irish emigrants to America. 
But in the succeeding chapter we shall see how they 
and their descendants again often met their old Eng- 
lish foes in foreign lands and helped to inflict upon 
them many a humiHating defeat, in return for having 
by their tyranny driven them from their native land. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Irish Victories Over tege English m Foreign 
Lands. "We Meet Again at Philippi." 

WHEN Brutus and his fellow-conspirators bru- 
tally assassinated Julius Csesar, almost hack- 
ing him to pieces by their swords and daggers, 
they imagined that his power and influence were gone 
forever. But no; his great spirit still Hved on in the 
heart of his successor, Cassar Augustus; and whilst 
Brutus in his camp on the distant shores of Asia was 
preparing for the final struggle against this new oppo- 
nent that had just sprung up against him, suddenly the 
ghost of Julius Caesar, pale and ghastly, is said to 
have appeared to him in his tent and said: "We 
meet again at Philippi." Before very long, the mean- 
ing of this apparition became plain, for a great battle 
was fought at Philippi, where Csesar Augustus was 
victorious and Brutus was defeated and slain. Caesar 
was dead but his spirit still conquered. 

So likewise when Ireland after a gallant struggle 
lay prostrate at the feet of England, the proud victor 
was not satisfied to kick her fallen victim, though it is 
only a coward that would strike a man when he is 
down; but England did more; she actually plunged 
a poisoned dagger into Erin's heart. She imagined 
that Ireland was dead — dead forever. But, lo! the 
great xmconquered spirit of Erin still lived on in the 
hearts of her exiled sons, who departed in thousands 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 39 

from their native land; and these exiled children of 
Erin were frequently to meet their old English foes 
on man}^ a well-fought field in foreign lands, inflicting 
upon them many a humiliating defeat. Indeed, most 
of England's reverses abroad during the last three 
centuries have been due to these exiled warriors of 
Erin, who at a decisive moment turned the tide of 
battle against her, so that England paid dearly for 
the exile of the Gael. 

The Irish have always proved themselves a very 
brave race at home and abroad. Many a time they 
put their Anglo-Saxon foes to flight from their native 
soil as we have seen in* chapter the fourth. Even 
King William of Orange himself, who had defeated 
them at the River Boyne, declared that '^they were 
born soldiers"; and he endeavored to enlist them 
into his own army. But the Irish soldiers loved 
liberty too well to live in subjection. So most of 
them passed over to the friendly soil of Spain and 
France , where their valor soon became so conspicuous 
that King Henry IV. of France said: "There was no 
nation which produced better troops than the Irish, 
when drilled." It was not long before they were to 
prove themselves worthy of these grand encomiums. 

A great European war broke out, entangling nearly 
aU the great powers of Europe. On one side were 
France and Spain. Arrayed against them were Eng- 
land, Germany, and Austria whose combined armies 
were commanded by the Duke of Marlborough and 
Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of the greatest command- 
ers of the age. Early in the struggle Italy became a 



40 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

bone of contention between them. A French army 
under the Duke of Villeroy, accompanied by two 
Irish regiments under O'Mahony and Burke, held 
the Italian town of Cremona. But one morning be- 
fore sunrise the place was surprised by the English 
auxiliaries under Prince Eugene and the whole French 
force with their commander was captured. The only 
part of the city that did not fall into the hands of the 
enemy was that held by the Irish; and now they were 
summoned to surrender. They answered with a 
volley of bullets. The Austrian general, having Irish 
troops in his own service, had a very high regard for 
Irish valor and did not wish to sacrifice the lives of 
brave men, so he sent messengers to expostulate with 
them, telHng them that the town was virtually in his 
hands and that further resistance would be only use- 
less shedding of blood. At the same time he assured 
them that if they immediately surrendered and joined 
his army they should be promptly promoted. But 
their answer was: "While one of us exists the Ger- 
man eagles will never float upon these walls." 

Thereupon the Irish troops were attacked by an 
overwhelming force. Taken completely by surprise 
they were compelled to fight in their shirt sleeves ; yet, 
before sunrise they had recovered nearly half the 
city; and before evening they had completely expelled 
the enemy from the town and rescued the French gen- 
eral and all his soldiers from the hands of their foes. 
Next day the sad news arrived in London that the 
alHes of England had met with defeat and disaster 
from the Irish, whom English folly and tyranny had . 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 41 

driven into exile. As the poet has well expressed it, 
there was — 

''News, news in Vienna! King Leopold's sad. 
News, news in St. James'! Eang William's mad. 
News, news in Versailles! Let the Irish brigade 
Be loyally honored and royally paid." 
But still more important than this was the great 
battle of Fontenoy, a few years after, when the Irish 
exiles met this time not the aUies of England, but the 
English themselves, their old hated foes. Every 
schoolboy knows the thrilling story of this battle — 
how the French army beaten by the English was about 
to flee from the field, when as a last resort the Irish 
Brigade was ordered to charge upon the victorious 
Anglo-Saxons. The Irish advanced with fixed bay- 
onets; then with a tremendous shout: "Remember 
the broken treaty of Limerick and Enghsh perfidy," 
they dashed upon the flank of their foes. The English 
were stunned by the dreadful shout, and dazed by the 
sudden attack of their ancient foes. It seemed as 
if Csesar's ghost had suddenly confronted them. 
They were completely shattered by the Irish charge; 
they reeled, then broke before the Irish bayonets, and 
tumbled down the hill, disorganized, broken and 
falling by hundreds. The victory was bloody and 
complete. After the battle the French King Louis 
rode down to the Irish auxiliaries and personally 
thanked them. On the other hand the tidings of de- 
feat caused consternation in England; and when 
King George 11. heard how the flower of his troops 
had been defeated by the exiled warriors of Erin, 



42 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

he exclaimed: "Cursed be the laws that deprive me of 
such subjects!" 

But the Irish were to inflict a still greater humilia- 
tion upon England by causing her to lose America, 
the fairest of all her provinces, the land that is to-day 
the richest country in the world. There is no doubt 
whatsoever that but for the Irish the United States 
would be an English colony to-day. But for the 
help given them by the Irish the early American pa- 
triots would never have been able to hold out until 
the arrival of French aid. They would have been 
speedily crushed by the mailed hand of England. 

The Hon. Geo. Washington Park Curtis, the step- 
son of General Washington, tells us that: " Up to the 
coming of the French, Ireland had furnished to the 
revolutionary army one hundred soldiers to one from 
any other nation whatever." 

It is a fact not generally known that one-half the 
soldiers of the American revolutionary army were of 
Irish birth. During the seven years war that secured 
American independence the forces raised by the United 
States consisted of two hundred and eighty-eight 
thousand men. Of this army there were two Irish- 
men to every native. At the close of the war, a Mr. 
Galloway, who had been speaker of the Pennsylvania 
Assembly was examined before a committee of the 
House of Commons and asked what the Continental 
Army was composed of. Here is his answer: — "The 
names and places of their nativity having been taken 
down, I can answer the question with precision. 
There were scarcely one-fourth natives of America, 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 43 

about one half were Irish, and the other fourth prin- 
cipally Scotch and English." 

Not only did Ireland furnish soldiers to the Amer- 
ican cause, but great generals as well. Some of the 
most successful generals of the Revolutionary war 
were of Irish birth or extraction. Among others 
may be mentioned General Stephen Moylan, the first 
quarter-master of the Revolutionary army. General 
Sullivan, General Montgomery, who invaded Canada 
and laid down his life for the cause, and General 
Stark, the son of an Irish emigrant. He defeated 
the English in the Battle of Bennington, taking six 
hundred prisoners. Before the battle he gave utter- 
ance to a famous remark which is certain to live in 
history. Pointing to the English he said to his 
soldiers, most of whom were Irish or of Irish descent, 
like himself: "Boys, there are the redcoats; before 
evening they will be ours or Molly Stark will be a 
widow." 

It is also worthy of note that the father of General 
Wayne came from Ireland and settled in Pennsyl- 
vania, Most of his soldiers, too, were Irish. They 
gained a great many victories over the English and 
we can now easily understand why the British called 
their leader: "Mad Anthony Wayne." Whenever 
anyone defeats the English, they always say he is 
"mad"; just as they speak at the present day of the 
Mad Mullah of Africa, because he has routed them 
so often in battle. 

Not only did Ireland furnish soldiers and generals 
to the American revolutionary army, but likewiw 



44 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

marines to the first American navy. The first com- 
modore of the American navy was an Irishman called 
Barry; and once when a haughty English admiral 
met him on the high seas and peremptorily demanded: 
*'Who goes there?" this brave Irishman sent a cannon 
ball whistling over the bow of the Enghsh ship and 
replied: "I am saucy Jack Barry, commodore of 
the American navy? Who are you?" We can 
readily comprehend how valuable were the services 
of this Irishman to the American cause when, to detach 
him from it, the English commander. Lord Howe, 
offered him 15,000 guineas and the command of the 
best frigate in the English navy. But the gallant and 
uncorruptible patriot repHed: ''I have devoted my- 
self to the cause of America and the command of the 
whole British fleet with all the money in the British 
Empire could not seduce me from it." 

But probably still more necessary than even soldiers 
and sailors was to supply the American Government 
with the "sinews of war," to carry on the great struggle 
against powerful England. Yet in the darkest hour 
of the great crisis, when famine was staring in the 
face of Washington's little army at Valley Forge and 
discontent, desertion, and discouragement appeared 
on all sides, who was it that again came to the rescue 
of the American cause with generous financial assist- 
ance but the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick ? Twenty- 
seven members of this Irish society contributed 103,500 
pounds, or over half a million dollars and then more 
than an equivalent for several millions at the present 
time. This patriotic act was fully appreciated by 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 45 

Washington, who wrote the society a very compli- 
mentary letter and declared it to be ''distinguished 
for its firm adherence to our glorious cause." Yet, at 
the same time, another Irishman, Thomas Fitszim- 
mons, subscribed a loan of twenty-five thousand dollars 
to the same cause. 

Not only did the Irish contribute soldiers and sailors 
and material resources to the American cause , but also 
in the council-rooms they had wise statesmen and 
worthy representatives. Four of these, Charles 
Carroll of CarroUton, his cousin, Daniel Carroll, 
Thomas Fitzsimmons, and Thomas Lee were mem- 
bers of the Continental Congress and signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

Moreover, it is well known that it was the mission 
to Canada of Father John Carroll, afterwards Arch- 
bishop Carroll, that secured the neutrality of the 
Canadians and thus greatly helped the American 
cause. 

Finally, after spending, as Edward Burke says, 
seventy millions of pounds and causing the loss of one 
hundred thousand lives, England was forced to give 
up the struggle. She had lost her American colonies 
through the instrumentality of the Irish. To them 
she is indebted for the loss of the finest and richest 
country in the world. She still holds Ireland beneath 
her iron heel, although of late she seems more inclined 
to give her tardy justice; but because of her past 
tyranny in that country she has lost a country twenty 
times greater than Ireland in population, a hundred 
times greater in size and a thousand times greater in 



46 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

natural resources — in fact a country almost as large 
as all Europe together. Let Englishmen boast of 
their superiority over the Irish. Let them continue 
to despise the Irish as a conquered race. The Irish 
can truly say that in foreign lands they met again their 
EngKsh foes at Philippi and history tells us who were 
the victors. 

Besides causing England the loss of the United 
States, these same turbulent Irish came very near de- 
priving dear Mother England of Canada also. At the 
close of the late American Civil War, a large force of 
Irishmen who had been trained in the American army 
organized themselves into a society called the Fenians 
and resolved to sever Canada from England. 

The movement was making great headway and 
promised to be entirely successful until the American 
Government issued a proclamation forbidding any 
military movement against any government with 
which the American people were at peace. The 
Washington authorities even went so far as to post 
United States soldiers along the Canadian frontier 
and to station gunboats on the lakes and on the St. 
Lawrence River to prevent the Fenians from crossing 
over to Canada. Perhaps they might have been com- 
pelled to do so by international law; but, at any rate, 
the Anglo-maniacs of America have always been too 
obsequious to England. Nevertheless, one force of 
Irishmen under Colonel John O'Neil succeeded in 
getting across and on the heights of Ridgeway inflicted 
a severe defeat on a large force of EngHsh, under 
Colonel Booker. The British and their commandw: 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 47 

fled for their lives, leaving their proud standard in the 
hands of the Irish. This victory created the greatest 
consternation throughout Canada and England. The 
English were in great fear that they were now about 
to lose Canada, as they had lost the United States. 
But, on the following day, O'Neil learned with regret 
that his supports and suppHes had been cut off by 
United States gun-boats and nothing remained but 
to surrender to the American naval commander. 

In the late Boer War, also, the Irish once more 
distinguished themselves under the command of their 
gallant leader. Colonel Blake, against their ancient 
foes. Many a humiliating defeat the Irish Brigade 
helped to inflict on Tommy Atkins at Ladysmith, 
the Tugela River, and Spion Kop. As the English 
greatly dreaded to meet them in the open field, even 
at this period of enlightenment, the dawn of the twen- 
tieth century, they had recourse to their old dastardly 
system of warfare, actually placing a price of five 
thousand pounds, or twenty-five thousand dollars on 
the head of Colonel Blake; and, although he is a 
native American citizen, our pro-English toady, Sec- 
retary of State Hay, has never even protested against 
this barbarous and uncivilized system of warfare. 

But in spite of all these defeats and humiliations 
at the hands of the Irish, the Englishman will tell us 
that the Irishman is too hot-headed and impetuous 
to make a good soldier. On the contrary how fre- 
quently we hear of the boasted Anglo-Saxon pluck, 
coolness and bull-dog tenacity upon the battle-field! 
In our next chapter, therefore, we shall compare the 



48 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Irish and English soldier, delineating the military 
traits and characteristics of each. In a word we shall 
endeavor to solve the question: ''Which country 
produces the better soldiers, Ireland or England?", 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Irish and English Soldier Compared. 

AS the English have conquered Ireland, it would 
seem as if the Anglo-Saxon were superior to 
the Celt in miUtary affairs, since it is usually 
the superior race that conquers. But here we have 
an exception to the rule; for we have seen in the 
previous chapter how the Irish exiles carried the 
contest into foreign lands, met their old foes again 
on many a well-fought field, and were finally the 
victors. As our venerable Senator Hoar has well 
said: ''The Irish have conquered their conquerors." 
Would it not seem then, from their ultimate triumph, 
that the Irish are the braver race? 

Nobody has ever questioned the extraordinary 
bravery of the Irish race. Their valor on the battle- 
field has passed into a proverb. Whenever there is 
a grand charge to be made upon the enemy or a vigor- 
ous assault upon his works, then the ardent and im- 
petuous Irish soldiers surpass all others. They 
sweep every obstacle before them by one grand rush 
and are as irresistible as the hurricane. Those who 
have witnessed the wild charge of the Irish brigade 
upon the battle-field say it is an inspiring sight, which 
they can never forget. 

In other countries continual tyranny has finally 
broken the spirit of the bravest race. For instance, 
who would recognize in the dejected and disheartened 



so THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Indian of Modern Mexico the descendants of the 
mighty Aztecs, who so long defied the invincible 
Cortes and his gallant Spanish cavaliers? Yet they 
are essentially the same race ; but oppression has done 
its deadly work. But Ireland has had to endure far 
more from seven centuries of English tyranny; yet, 
with very few exceptions, the Irish are to-day as brave 
and high-spirited as ever. 

It is true, the English claim to be a still more valor- 
ous race. But the question is: ''Who is the braver, 
the man who defends himself courageously from the 
unprovoked attack of an adversary greatly his superior 
in size or the bully who goes around continually 
looking for trouble with those that are smaller than 
himself but is afraid to meet an opponent of his own 
weight ? Thus we have in the form of an allegory the 
military record of the Irish and the English race. 

Ireland has had to fight England, an antagonist 
nearly twice her size. The Irish did not seek for the 
contest, it was forced upon them in defence of their 
homes and freedom. On the contrary, the Enghsh 
have always been very brave in the presence of smaller 
and weaker powers or in dealing with the undeveloped 
races of Asia and Africa, whose weapons are still 
little better than bows and arrows; but they have al- 
ways been very civil towards the United States and the 
great powers of Europe. Whether this is bravery or 
cowardice let the reader judge for himself. 

Only twice in her history during fifteen centuries 
has England gone to war with a country as large as 
«r larger than herself; and then under circumstances 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 51 

which certainly reflect no credit on her. Once she 
went to war with France, but at a time when that 
poor country had the misfortune to have an insane 
king and was torn by civil dissensions. But after 
fighting for a hundred years to get control of France 
the Enghsh were driven bag and baggage out of the 
country and have never been able to get a permanent 
foothold there since. Truly these Enghsh are won- 
derful for taking advantage of their neighbor's mis- 
fortunes; but they sometimes pay dearly for it after- 
wards. On another occasion, England went to war 
with Russia; but she was very careful beforehand to 
have secured France and Turkey to fight by her side. 
However, a few years ago, England began to feel 
her old brave spirit before the weak and powerless 
once more swelling up within her heart; so she re- 
solved to get a slice of Venezuela. The poor, helpless 
Venezuelans begged England to refer the case to 
arbitration. But Joe Chamberlain said: ^'No! The 
only arbitration will be by Maxim Guns." But just 
then that grand old man of democracy, President 
Cleveland, stepped in and held the Monroe Doctrine 
as a magic helmet over Venezuela. Then all at cnce 
what a great change came over the countenance of 
John Bull! He began to make all sorts of excuses 
and apologies saying: "I beg your pardon sir! I 
did not mean to offend you! We are cousins you 
know! Blood is thicker than water! Let us be 
friends and live in peace!" Everybody knows how 
ingloriously England backed down on that occasion 
before the United States. 



52 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

How different was England's attitude a few years 
afterwards to the two little republics of South Africa. 
No sooner were diamonds discovered in the Transvaal 
than England, never at a loss for a pretext to despoil 
the weak, manufactured some flimsy excuse for making 
war on that country. President Kruger of the 
Transvaal requested England to refer the case to 
arbitration. But England said: ''No! There is 
nothing to arbitrate." ''Then," said Kruger, "If 
you are bound to have my country, you will purchase 
it at a price that will stagger humanity." He kept 
his word. For more than two years, these two little 
republics of South Africa, the Transvaal and the 
Orange River Free State, whose combined population 
did not reach one million, kept at bay the whole 
power of England. England's thirty millions could 
not conquer this little handful of brave farmers, so 
she had to call upon Canada and Australia for assist- 
ance. Yes, and even Queen Victoria herself with a 
shamrock in her hand had to go over to Ireland beg- 
ging for soldiers. There were three hundred thousand 
British soldiers against thirty thousand Boers; yet 
though only one to ten the Boers made England the 
laughing stock of Europe. 

Until the Boer War knocked some of the conceit out 
of the heads of our Anglo-Saxon friends we were 
accustomed to hear so much of English pluck, cool- 
ness, and bull-dog tenacity upon the battle-field that 
we might imagine that when the Almighty created 
the human race he gave to the Anglo-Saxon a monopoly 
of every martial perfection. But when the whole 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 53 

world looking on saw how one Boer put to flight from 
two to ten English soldiers, people opened their eyes 
in amazement and inquired: ''Where is that boasted 
EngHsh pluck about which we heard so much?" 

For a long time too, the English had been boasting 
of their "Anglo-Saxon coolness" in battle, and crit- 
icising the Irish for their hot-headedness , which 
they alleged, would prevent them from ever becoming 
successful soldiers. The English had forgotten what 
we have related in a previous chapter about the cool- 
ness of the Irish, when under Hugh O 'Byrne they en- 
trapped the EngHsh in a ravine and waited calmly 
without firing until the enemy was entirely enmeshed 
in the snare; when they were completely thrown into 
a panic and fled in all directions. Where was the 
famous Anglo-Saxon coolness then? Anglo-Saxon 
coolness is a myth, like the myth about Anglo-Saxon 
pluck and a great many other English myths. 

The English are as easily panic-stricken in battle as 
any other race under the sun and probably more so. 
We have seen how on one occasion the whole English 
army was thrown into a panic when they saw their 
cavalry rush headlong into some pits constructed for 
them by the strategy of Hugh O'Neil. So in the late 
Boer War how often a stampede among the American 
mules was sufi&cient to deprive the cool-headed Eng- 
lishman of his boasted coolness and to throw the whole 
British army in an uncontrollable panic! In fact 
the British generals put the blame for nearly all their 
defeats on the American mules and the poor dumb 
animals were not able to contradict them. 



54 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

But, while we find the English not guilty of any ex- 
traordinary bravery or coolness on the battle-field, we 
must frankly confess, to give them their due, that they 
certainly do possess a great deal of what they call 
"Anglo-Saxon bull-dog tenacity." The bull-dog is 
not by any means a noble animal; nor is he the strong- 
est of the canine species; for the Great Dane and the 
Newfoundland dog are much stronger; yet it is said 
that no other dog is a match for the bull-dog, because 
when once he gets a hold it is impossible to break his 
grasp. So the English, though not at all the strongest 
or the bravest race, have been by their dogged tenacity, 
aided by their cunning and trickery, about which we 
shall speak more later, a match for even more powerful 
races than themselves. No matter how often they 
have been defeated, the English will again return to 
the attack; and there is no doubt that they can endure 
a great deal of punishment. The secret of it is that 
the English Government cares very little for the life 
of her common soldiers ; so she is ready to sacrifice any 
number of them in order to win the victory. She does 
not care as long as the Enghsh nobility do not fall 
in battle. England considers the life of one English 
lord more valuable than the lives of a thousand com- 
mon soldiers. 

Yet England's tenacity of purpose is generally 
manifested only to a weaker power, but before a strong 
adversary she is not at all so determined. Twice at 
least in her career she has ingloriously relinquished 
the contest — once when she abandoned the 
conquest of France and again when she was 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 55 

compelled to grant independence to her American 
colonies. 

But there are other races just as tenacious of pur- 
pose as the English people and perhaps more so. 
After all the horrors that our Irish forefathers endured 
under Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell they did not 
give up the great battle for their freedom and indepen- 
dence. Though decimated by the sword, wasted by 
famine, and reduced to a meer handful, they were 
not afraid to leap to arms again in 1798 and 1848, 
and to defy the whole power of the British Empire. 
Yet, as the poet says, where is the Irishman at home or 
abroad to-day 

**Who fears to speak of ninety-eight 
Who blushes at the name?" 

The Irish are just as enthusiastic as ever to-day to 
renew the contest should a favorable opportunity offer, 
and they will never give up the struggle as long as there 
is a single Irishman left, until England has been 
forced to do justice to their native land. Another 
Irish poet, the late T. D. Sullivan, sums up well the 
sentiments of every loyal Irish heart: 

''But on the cause must go, 

Amidst joy, or weal, or woe; 

Till we make our isle a nation free and grand." 

Having thus made a comparison of the Irish and 
English races on the three qualities required to con- 
stitute a good soldier we find, according to the most 
convincing evidence, that the Irish, while not lacking 
in coolness, surpass the English in bravery and d«- 



56 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

termination. Consequently, as they excel in two out 
of three of the essential requisites, we must naturally 
conclude that the Irish make the better soldiers. 

Even the English themselves tacitly acknowledge 
this, because in time of trouble they are so anxious to 
get their Irish subjects to go and fight for them. That 
is about the only time Ireland can get any concession 
from England; just as at the present time, when she 
expects trouble in the East with Russia, she tries to 
conciHate Ireland by passing "The Land Purchase 
Act." But, if the Irish are wise, they will let England 
henceforth fight her own battles. I suppose that the 
Irishmen who enter the English army join it because 
they can find nothing to do at home, as industry is at 
a stand-still, because of English oppression. No 
doubt too, there are some scapegraces in Ireland, as 
in every other country, who drift into the army as 
their national goal; but they make excellent soldiers 
for England. Is it not sad to think that the Irish have 
thus unintentionally helped England to crush many 
another brave race such as the Boers, just as she has 
oppressed Ireland herself? Only for the help that 
the Irish have given thus to England, she would be 
down on her knees long ago. She has been living for 
a hundred years on the reputation of the Duke of 
Wellington; and Colonel Blake who fought against 
her, as the leader of the Irish brigade, in the Boer 
War, declares that the native English soldiers to-day 
are a race of degenerates who have greatly deteriorated 
from the standard of the English soldier of days gone 

by. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 57 

On the other hand, all the great generals that have 
won fame and renown for England during the past 
century were Irishmen, from Lord Wellington who 
conquered the great Napoleon, down to Lord Wolsey 
and even still later to Lord Roberts and Lord Kit- 
chener, who recently conquered the Boers. No doubt 
the English will say that all these were of English 
descent; but it will be very hard for them to answer 
the question: "Why does not the English race pro- 
duce such heroes at home? Why must the Anglo- 
Saxon, be transplanted over in Ireland in order to 
reach his highest development? We should imagine 
that if there is any virtue in a race at all it would mani- 
fest itself in its native soil. It is clear therefore that 
England has to go to Ireland for her mihtary geniuses ; 
for Erin with her lovely vales and her pure air is the 
natural home of heroes. 

Since then the English have no reason to lord it 
over the Irish from an exhaustive comparison of their 
respective achievements in war; they will have to fall 
back now on their second argument, their achieve- 
ments in peace. So in the succeeding chapters we 
shall have to compare the alleged prosperity of Eng- 
land and her success in the arts and sciences with the 
alleged poverty and iUiteracy of Ireland. 



PART 11. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Poverty oe the Irish. 

THE second great argument advanced by the 
Anglo-Saxons to prove their superiority over 
the Celtic race is the prosperity of the EngHsh 
and the poverty of the Irish. It is an indisputable 
fact that England is a far more prosperous country 
than Ireland. Everyone admits that. The most 
unprejudiced travellers tell us of the enterprise, the 
industry, and the prosperity witnessed in the most 
comfortable homes in England; whilst in Ireland they 
saw nothing but poverty, squalor, stagnation, and 
decay. What wonder that the Anglo-Saxon speaks 
of his country as "Merry England," whilst Ireland is 
described as 

"The most distressful country that ever you have 

seen!" 
Before investigating the cause of these diverse con- 
ditions in the two countries, it may be well to remem- 
ber that poverty and riches are a very poor criterion 
by which to judge a nation or an individual. All 
philosophers and Holy Scripture itself tell us not to 
judge a man by the coat he wears. Did not the great 
Diogenes live in a tub as a dwelling ? Yet Alexander 
the Great declared that if he were not Alexander he 
would like to be Diogenes. But a still more striking 
example was our Divine Saviour Himself, Who, though 
the Lord of all creation and Master of the thousands 



62 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

of bright spheres that revolve in the vast realms of 
space, could truly say: "The foxes have their dens 
and the birds of the air their nests ; but the Son of Man 
hath not where to lay His head." 

Yet, some people are continually reproaching the 
Irish with their poverty, as if it were a great disgrace 
to be poor. But honest poverty is no disgrace; on 
the contrary it makes them more Hke our Blessed 
Saviour Himself. The only poverty that is disgraceful 
is that which people have brought upon themselves by 
their own prodigality, intoxication, and debauchery. 
That is criminal, but poverty that is unavoidable 
through sickness or misfortune, in spite of industry, 
temperance, and economy is truly honorable. Thanks 
be to God, with very few exceptions, the Irish people 
have no reason to be ashamed of their poverty. In- 
deed, I sincerely beheve that it is mainly due to their 
poverty that the Irish people have always remained 
so faithful to their holy religion, whilst other nations 
more prosperous have made shipwreck of the faith. 
It is their poverty that has always preserved in their 
hearts that spirit of humility which is the foundation 
of all virtue; and on whom does God shower down 
His heavenly gifts but on the meek and lowly of heart ? 
Our Blessed Saviour Himself said: "Blessed are the 
poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." 
So the Irish, though poor in earthly possessions, are 
rich in the gifts of heaven. 

It Vidll not be at all to the advantage of the Irish 
people if they lose this spirit of poverty. If ever they 
become rich and wealthy, then farewell to their faith! 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 63 

St. Paul tells us that ''They who become rich fall into 
temptations and into the snare of the devil, and into 
many unprofitable and hurtful desires which drown 
men into perdition and destruction." Does not ex- 
perience prove this ? Look at those Irish people and 
their descendants who have become wealthy in the 
United States! What has become of their faith? 
With some honorable exceptions, either they or their 
children are lost to the Church; for as soon as they 
became rich they considered that their poor Catholic 
neighbors were no longer fit to associate with them, 
so they began to form non-Catholic acquaintances, 
and then by entering into marriages with Protestants 
they lost the faith. 

So I confidently trust that our Irish people will 
never become over-burdened with wealth. I should 
like to see them comfortably situated, with a nice 
neat home and a modest competence, sufl&cient to 
maintain themselves and their famiHes in frugal com- 
fort, but no more. That is all that our Saviour directs 
us to pray for: ''Give us this day our daily bread." 

Yet, some of our leading Irish statesmen in this 
country are constantly bemoaning that the Irish race 
are falling behind in the great industrial struggle in 
the United States. Let the struggle rage 1 The Irish 
people are striving for something better. Instead of 
building for themselves houses on this earth made by 
human hands, they are building mansions in heaven. 
Instead of accumulating for themselves the dust of 
this world, which men call gold and silver, they -are 
laying up for themselves treasures in heaven, "where 



64 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break 
through and steal. ' ' Look at all the churches, schools, 
and convents which the Irish have erected out of their 
poverty all over the world! What wonder that the 
renegade Catholic, Michael McCarthy, in his venem- 
ous book entitled: ''The Priests and People of 
Ireland," declares that it is the Church which has 
impoverished the Irish people. But even if the base 
charge were true — happy! yea, thrice happy the 
race that has become poor for the glory of the Saviour, 
Who became so poor for us ! In what better way could 
they spend their means than for the glory of God, the 
spread of his holy religion, and the salvation of souls ? 
But let us now inquire what is the real cause of the 
poverty and distress of the great majority of the Irish 
people. It would be unfair to say that it is due to 
any one cause; but, like most other things, it can be 
traced to a variety of sources. We must candidly 
but regretfully admit that a great deal of it is due to 
the undeniable weakness of our race for intoxicating 
liquor. That is the curse which has undoubtedly 
held them back for centuries and has done much to 
impede their progress in the great industrial race in 
this country. But for their propensity to intoxicating 
liquor, the Irish would be the greatest power in this 
country to-day. They have all the qualities necessary 
to win success. They have the brain, the brawn, 
and the industry. All that is necessary to win success 
with these is sobriety. Through lack of this cardinal 
virtue the Irish are falling behind other nationahties 
in the great industrial race; and the Hebrews, the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 65 

Italians, and the French, though later arrivals in 
New England, are rapidly forging ahead of them. 
Yet, to give the Irish their due, it must be acknowl- 
edged that these other races have not been at all 
handicapped by their devotion to their religion, as 
the Irish people have been ; for not only have the Irish 
built fine churches for themselves but for the French 
and the Italians as well. French and Italian priests 
in Boston admit that most of the contributions for 
their churches came from the generous Irish people. 

Some of our English cousins tell us that another 
great cause of poverty among the Irish is their lack of 
industry, in other words their laziness. But I believe 
there is a far more deep-lying cause than either of 
these, and that is the robbery and spoliation of the 
Irish people by a tyrannical English Government, for 
hundreds of years. That is the causa causarum, the 
radix or root to which all other causes may be traced. 

How can we expect a man who has been waylaid 
by a highway robber and despoiled of all his posses- 
sions to be rich? What a mockery for a burglar 
after he has rendered his victim unconscious with a 
club to say: "Why don't you stand on your feet and 
walk like everybody else?" That, in a nutshell, is 
the way that England has treated Ireland. She has 
robbed her not only once but a dozen times and then 
reproached her for her poverty saying: "You miser- 
able, unfortunate beggar 1 why are you not rich and 
merry like me?" In fact the history of Ireland for 
seven centuries is but one continual act of spoliation 
and robbery on the part of England. 



66 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Ireland was first despoiled by Henry II. and the 
Normans; then by Henry VIII.; but that was nothing 
to the devastation of the whole island with fire and 
sword, from one end to the other, under Queen 
Elizabeth and her successor, James I. Five hundred 
thousand acres of the richest lands in all Ireland, with 
all the buildings erected upon them, were then con- 
fiscated and handed over to EngUsh and Scotch ad- 
venturers, whilst the original Irish owners were turned 
out upon the roadside to starve or to be hunted down 
like beasts of prey by the new settlers. 

Yet, even the spoliations of the vindictive Elizabeth 
pale into insignificance in comparison with those of 
the butcher Cromwell. Everybody knows how he 
confiscated the three fairest out of the four provinces 
of Ireland and banished the natives into the most 
barren and desolate corner of the island, telling them 
to : " Go to Hell or Connaught." The few that were 
permitted to remain were doomed to be the serfs of 
the new colonists. 

But England did not consider it sufiicient to despoil 
and impoverish the Irish; she was determined that 
she would always keep them poor. So she closed all 
the avenues of industry against them. In the reign 
of King WiUiam and Queen Anne the English Par- 
hament devised a series of penal laws against the Irish 
far more severe than those of Nero or Diocletian 
against the early Christians. Even the Devil himself 
could scarcely have devised a more infamous series of 
enactments to enslave a whole race. How often at 
the present day we hear the English reproaching the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 67 

Irish for their illiteracy. Yet who is to be blamed for 
their ignorance but the English themselves; since the 
EngUsh Parliament under the severest penalty for- 
bade the Irish to educate their children either at home 
or abroad? At the present day too, how frequently 
we hear the Irish reproached for their lack of industry ; 
but, again, who is to blame for that but the English 
likewise; for the English ParUament took away from 
the Irish all incentive to industry? Not only were 
they despoiled of their property but they were for- 
bidden to acquire any property in future or even to 
receive it as a gift. An Irish CathoHc v/as not allowed 
to possess even a horse worth more than £5, 

Moreover, fearing that Ireland, even in her lowly 
state, might become a dangerous commercial rival, 
England forbade the Irish to engage in any foreign 
commerce. Only the English colonists planted in 
Ireland were allowed this privilege. They had a 
monopoly of the trade; and yet English writers even 
at the present day pretend to be astonished that a 
Protestant city like Belfast is more thriving and pros- 
perous than a Catholic city Hke Cork. They would 
like to give the impression that it is all on account of 
the difference in race and religion — the enterprising 
spirit of the Protestant Englishman and the slug- 
gishness of the Catholic Irishman. But nothing 
is further from the truth. It is all due to the 
merciless tyranny of England in treating the Irish 
as a nation of slaves for three hundred years. They 
were just as much enslaved as the Negroes of North 
America were until they were Hberated by Abraham 



►«8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Lincoln. So it was only a little more than haK a 
century ago that the great Irish agitator, Daniel 
O'Connell, compelled an unwiUing EngHsh ParHament 
to pass the great Irish Emancipation Bill, in 1829; 
and thus once more restored to his countrymen the 
dignity of freemen. 

No wonder then that the Irish are poor as a rule 
both at home and abroad! The effects of three cen- 
turies of slavery are not undone in an hour. See how 
long it took the chosen people to recover from the 
effects of their Egyptian bondage! They had to re- 
main for forty years in the free air of the desert and 
one whole generation had to pass away before their 
descendants acquired the spirit and heart of freemen. 
So when the Irish were emancipated seventy-five years 
ago they were in no condition to compete with their 
Anglo-Saxon neighbors in the fields of industry and 
commerce. 

The English had already acquired possession of all 
the markets of the world; whereas the Irish, after 
being robbed so long by England, had no capital to 
«tart in any great enterprise and even if they had the 
capital, they lacked the knowledge of the mechanical 
arts to invest it to good advantage; as the Enghsh 
penal laws had so long forbidden them to receive 
an education or even to learn a trade. So their only 
industry was the cultivation of the soil. Hence when 
the great Irish exodus started to the United States 
in the famine days of 1847, the Irish found themselves 
homeless, friendless, and helpless, cast on a foreign 
shore without any trade or education in most cases. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 69 

The native Americans already settled there had a 
great start ahead of them and even foreigners coming 
from other countries had generally the advantage of 
an education and a trade which they had learned at 
home. So what remained for the poor Irish but to 
become the laborers — ''the hewers of wood and the 
drawers of water"? What wonder then that they 
found it difficult to compete with other races in the 
great industrial struggle even up to the present day! 
However, in the western portions of the United States, 
which have been more recently settled, where the 
Irish started more on 'a footing of equaUty with other 
races, many Irishmen have risen to the very highest 
position in the state by their industry and character. 
There are now many Irishmen in the West who are 
multi-milhonaires. Among others may be mentioned 
Mr. Cudahy of Chicago. But even here in the East, 
in spite of every disadvantage, have we not many 
Irish millionaires too, notably Mr. Cremins of New 
York and Mr. Prendergast of Boston ? Have not two 
Irishmen, Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Collins been more 
than once elected mayor of the Puritan city of Boston; 
and who has more influence in the halls of Congress 
at Washington than another Irishman, the great 
orator, Mr. Burke Cockran ? Who then will presume 
to say that Irishmen, given an equal opportunity, 
cannot compete with any other race on the face of 
the earth? 

But why cannot Irishmen be as successful as this 
at home? Because the opportunity is denied them 
by the English Government. Though for over a half 



fo THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

century the Irish are nominally under the very same 
laws as govern the EngHsh, just as it is hard for an 
athlete to overtake a sprinter who has a mile handicap^ 
so it will be a long time before the Irish can compete 
with the EngKsh, after all the laws of repression passed 
by an English Parliament against Irish commerce 
and in favor of English industry. 

Even yet the Irish have many disadvantages to 
contend with from which the EngHsh are entirely 
free. Only a few years ago, Mr. John Redmond, 
M. P., had a royal commission appointed to investi- 
gate the financial relations between Great Britain and 
Ireland; and, although the commission was composed 
almost entirely of Englishmen, it reported prac- 
tically unanimously that Ireland was taxed every 
year upwards of $12,500,000 above her proportionate 
share of so-called imperial taxation. Yet nothing 
has since been done to redress this crying injustice. 

No wonder then that the Irish are poor! They 
will always remain so until Ireland becomes again an 
independent nation. No country that has been held 
in subjection by another country has ever prospered. 
Look at Canada — a great country almost as rich in 
natural resources as the United States and far larger. 
Yet the United States has over 70,000,000 of people, 
most of them quite prosperous and Canada has only 
5,000,000. Even of these few milHons there is a 
regular exodus every year to the United States; and 
Canada would soon be depopulated but for her 
European emigration. Why this disparity between 
Canada and the United States? Because the United 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 71 

States is an independent country, where there is an 
incentive to industry; because the people know that 
they are working for themselves ; but in Canada there 
is no incentive to industry, because the Canadians 
know that the fruits of their industry will not be for 
themselves, but to enrich "Mother England." 

A similar condition still exists in Ireland. What 
incentive has an Irishman to work when he knows 
that all the profits of his labor will go into the land- 
lord's pocket? Even if he makes a little improve- 
ment on his land, the landlord will raise the rent on 
the pretext that his holding is worth now more than 
before. Thus the Irish farmer is taxed for his own 
industry. WHiat motive is there then to impel the 
Irish to be industrious? Can we be astonished 
therefore if there is some truth in the English 
accusation that the Irish are not an industrious 
people ? 

Not only have they the English landlords to support 
but an English garrison as well, comprising the Lord- 
Lieutenant and 13,000 constabulary. That poor 
degenerate Irishman, Mr. McCarthy, already referred 
to in this chapter, has made the allegation that it is 
the Irish priests that have impoverished the Irish 
people. Now certainly the priests of Boston receive 
as much salary as the priests in Ireland; and the salary 
of a secular priest in this city is only $600 a year. 
Who would call that too much salary for a man who 
spends so many years in training as a priest does? 
Indeed it does not deserve to be called salary at all. 
It is simply intended to pay his expenses. But the 



72 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

priest in a religious order gets no salary at all but only 
his miserable subsistence. 

On the contrary, the salary of the Irish Lord- 
Lieutenant is ;^2o,ooo or $100,000 a year. Just 
think of it! the ruler of a little island only three hundred 
miles long getting twice the salary of the President of 
the United States with its seventy millions of people! 
Thus the salary of the Irish viceroy alone would pay 
the salary of one hundred and sixty-seven secular 
priests or any number of regulars. Yet besides the 
Lord-Lieutenant there are in Ireland twenty-three 
English judges of the superior court who receive a 
salary of from ;^2,ooo to £8,000 a year, besides a 
host of minor magistrates. Add to this the salary of 
thirteen thousand constabulary, who are of no benefit 
to the people but are there only to dragoon them and 
force upon them the odious laws of England ; and then 
answer if it is true, according to Mr. McCarthy, that 
the Irish give : "Every Penny to the Church." After 
ahey have paid the salaries of the English garrison, 
we may be sure that they have very little left for the 
Church or anything else. 

That is the reason why Mr. McCarthy himself had 
to abandon his profession of law and turn to writing 
books for the English pubHc; because his own country- 
men did not have the means to employ him, after they 
had satisfied the Enghsh tax-gatherer, if indeed it is 
ever possible to satisfy that individual. A short time 
ago I had a conversation with an Irish priest who was 
taking up a collection for his church in this country. 
Now that priest was a cousin of this McCarthy who 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 73 

wrote that vile book against the priests and people 
of Ireland; and he told me that '^ though McCarthy 
was his cousin there was a yellow streak in him and 
his father before him." "McCarthy," he said, "is a 
clever young Irishman who graduated from Trinity 
College, Dublin. That of course is an English and 
Protestant institution; but whether he imbibed his 
vile principles there or not I cannot say ; as ma ny 
Irishmen have m recent years graduated there and 
still remained loyal to faith and fatherland. At any 
rate, after his graduation McCarthy, like a great many 
other young lawyers, found that he could get very 
little to do in the practice of his profession. In a 
word he became a * briefless barrister. ' So he thought 
that he might win the attention of the English Govern- 
ment, and perhaps be appointed a magistrate, if he 
should write a book against the Home-Rule move- 
ment in Ireland. Hence he soon became the author 
of: ' Five Years in Ireland, ' which was a most scathing 
attack on the political aspirations of the Irish people. 
Yet the English Government took no notice of it and 
the magistracy that he longed for never came. 

"So McCarthy next penned a still more venomous 
book entitled: 'The Priests and People of Ireland.' " 
No more dastardly attack was ever made by human 
hand upon the race and religion of his countrymen. 
I do not say that every word in that book is a bare- 
faced lie. No doubt there is some foundation in fact;, 
but what little grain of truth there is in it is so en- 
veloped in the chaff of error, exaggeration, and mis- 
representation that it will do far more harm than an 



74 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

open calumny. Nothing is more dangerous than a 
half-truth. A direct calumny can be easily refuted; 
but Mr. McCarthy's stock in trade in attacking the 
Irish priests and people consists in putting a false 
construction on their actions and a wrong interpreta- 
tion on their motives ; in passing over their virtues en- 
tirely and putting the few petty little faults which they 
have under a magnifying glass. 

I shall not attempt to refute one by one the charges 
which he makes. That would be an endless chain; 
but what I do criticise is the method he follows. 
According to the same method I might get a powerful 
telescope, search out the spots on the sun and con- 
vince myself that it is all black and that there is not 
a single luminous point in it. On the same principle 
I might paint the character of the Anglo-Saxon so 
black that there would not be a single redeeming 
feature in it. If an Englishman wrote a book like 
McCarthy's about England he would be thrown into 
the Thames. 

The best way to judge of a book is from the im- 
pression it creates. It is therefore sufficient con- 
demnation of McCarthy's book that it has made his 
countrymen — the few that read it — sad, and the 
enemies of his country to rejoice. What greater con- 
demnation for any book? After reading that book 
the question naturally arises: "I wonder if there is 
any good at all among the priests and people of Ire- 
land," or as one witty priest has said: "Is it not a 
wonder that God allows such a people to live at all?" 
The natural inference that you derive from the book 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 75 

is that there is only one good and wise man in the 
whole island and that is Michael McCarthy. 

Has McCarthy got no scruples of conscience in 
thus blackening the character of his countrymen? 
What does he care? His book aroused the curiosity 
of the English Protestant Bible societies and passed 
through several editions. So the shekels soon began 
to pour in upon him and he found this much more 
lucrative than to practice law among his impoverished 
countr3rmen. Accordingly, he promises to publish 
another book still more sensational before very long. 

What worse indictment can be found against the 
English misgovernment of Ireland than that a talented 
young Irishman can find no more profitable way of 
earning a liveHhood than in traducing his own country- 
men? Indeed England has always encouraged such 
disgraceful proceedings, following out her well-known 
poKcy: '* Divide and Conquer." We know how in 
the time of Queen Elizabeth the children of Irish 
parents were often taken over to England and trained 
up in hatred and horror of their native land, so that 
they might afterwards serve as England's tools against 
their countrymen. In fact one man called Murrough 
O'Brien, brought up in this way, was afterwards sent 
over to Ireland under the title of Lord Inchiquin, and 
butchered his own countrymen, men, women, and 
children, aye the very priests at the altar, in cold 
blood. 

We can now understand how Ireland could produce 
such a creature as Michael McCarthy. But still, 
what a despicable fellow he must be to make capital 



76 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

by ruining the character of his fellow-men! As a 
well-known English poet has said: 

"Who stealeth from me my purse steals trash; 

But he that filcheth from me my good name 

Deprives me of that which not enricheth him and 
makes me poor indeed." 
But what shall we say when this base calumny is 
uttered against a man's own countrymen in order to 
please her traditional foes? Dermot McMurrough is 
called a traitor, because he turned his arms against 
his own countrymen; but if the pen is mightier than 
the sword, what kind of a double-dyed traitor is 
Michael McCarthy who turns his weapons not only 
against his own country but what is still more sacred, 
his own rehgion also? 

Worse still, whilst making this attack he has the 
'effrontery to remain within his country's gates and 
to declare that he is still "a true Irishman and a true 
Catholic." If he only had the sense of decency to 
renounce his religion and his country before assailing 
them, there might be some palliation of his conduct; 
but no doubt he is fully aware that an enemy within 
can do far more harm than an enemy from without. 
So under the guise of friendship he gives his religion 
and nationahty the kiss of Judas. 

If an EngHshman had written such a book everyone 
would say that it was due to his national prejudices; 
but as it was written by a man professing to be a true 
Irishman and a true Catholic people will say: "Surely 
he must be a good authority " ; and thus there is danger 
that it will do a great deal of injury to our race in the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 77 

English-speaking world. Yet it is very evident from 
the rancour of his style that McCarthy is neither a 
true Irishman nor a true Catholic. If he ever pos- 
sessed the Catholic faith at all, it is very manifest 
that he has lost it completely. What can we think 
of a man professing to be a Catholic who declares 
that: "A simple prayer said by an Irish hedge on a 
Sunday morning is just as good as the Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass " ? What can we think of a Catholic who 
is offended at the number of churches erected to the 
glory of God and who declares that the money might 
be spent better to relieve the poor? Was not that 
the argument of Judas just before he betrayed our 
Lord? He was offended because Mary Magdalen 
poured the precious ointment on our Saviour's head, 
saying: "This might be sold for much and given to 
the poor." But our Saviour repUed: "The poor 
you have always with you ; but Me you have not always 
with you." 

Neither does McCarthy deserve to be called "a 
true Irishman"; for a true patriot never reviles his 
country. If he thinks she is going wrong he may 
criticise her, yet with kindness and forbearance; but 
he will never flaunt her faults before the whole civil- 
ized world. As a distinguished American has well 
said, the patriot's motto should be: "May my country 
always be right; but right or wrong it is always my 
country." The great Jewish historian, Josephus is 
sometimes accused of exhibiting in his writings a 
certain spirit of hostility to his own countrymen and 
of partiality for her enemies; but there was some ex- 



78 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

cuse for him; as he was an exile and a captive. Yet 
even Josephus gave utterance to these noble words: 
''May I never become so debased a slave as to revile 
my country or forget my native land." 

Shades of Josephus! Where is the patriotism of 
McCarthy who has not a word of praise even fpr the 
beautiful valleys and charming scenery of his native 
land? As the great Scottish poet, Sir Walter Scott, 
has well said: 



''Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
Who never to himself hath said: 
'This is my own, my native land,' 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned; 
As home his footsteps he hath turned, 
From wandering on a foreign strand?" 

"If such there be, go! mark him well. 
For him no minstrel raptures swell; 
High though his titles, proud his name, 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; 
Despite these titles, power and pelf, 
The wretch concentred all in self. 
Living shall forfeit fair renown 
And doubly dying shall go down 
To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." 

So will Mr. McCarthy go down to the vile dust as 
the traducer of his native land, its priests, and people. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 79 

Though he has not said anything new, but only re- 
hashed the same old calumnies that the English have 
been circulating against the Irish for hundreds of 
years; yet coming from the Ups of an Irishman him- 
self these old accusations will be doubly harmful in 
their new disguise. But certainly, no Englishman 
has ever written against the Irish people with half the 
bitterness that this denationalized Irishman has em- 
ployed against his own race. On the contrary, many 
English travellers who have passed through Ireland, 
especially in recent years, have spoken in very com- 
plimentary terms of the inhabitants thereof. 

Froude is not generally considered a very dear 
friend of the Irish ; yet he marvels at the extraordinary 
honesty of the people saying: "They sleep without 
any bolts on their doors or fastenings on their windows 
as securely as if they were with the angels in paradise." 
Still more complimentary to the Irish people is the 
account of them which the English writer Thackeray 
has left us in his '^ Irish Sketch Book." If only Mr. 
McCarthy had read that book it would make him so 
proud of his native land, its priests, and people that 
it is extremely doubtful if he would ever have published 
his infamous book entitled: ''The Priests and People 
of Ireland." 

Besides reaping a rich harvest from the English 
reading public, it would seem as if the second object 
of McCarthy's book was to divide the priests and 
people of Ireland; to set the laity against the clergy, 
as the apostate Combes is endeavoring to do in France 
at the present day, by striving to persuade the people 



8o THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

that it is the Church and not the tyranny of the govern- 
ment that is the cause of their poverty. But it will 
require more than McCarthy to antagonize the people 
against the priests. The people know well that their 
clergy take very httle from them in return for all that 
they do for them; and of what Httle they do take very 
little indeed is for themselves. It is spent for the 
glory of God in building or repairing churches, schools, 
and convents. Thus it returns again to the people in 
furnishing useful employment for carpenters, brick- 
layers, and laborers. The people know very well, too, 
that they would spend far more in one law-suit in 
hiring a lawyer like McCarthy than they would be 
called upon to contribute to the Church for years. 
The people know also how many vexatious law-suits 
they are spared by the kindly arbitration of their 
priests, who settle many a quarrel of their parishioners 
out of court without any expense to them. Perhaps 
that is one of the reasons that makes Mr. McCarthy 
so extremely bitter in his book against the priests; 
because unintentionally they have kept him from 
exploiting the people. 

Oh! no Mr. McCarthy, you cannot deceive the 
Irish people as easily as that. They know that their 
priests are their best friends, to whom they naturally 
turn for consolation in the hour of their greatest need, 
the hour of sickness and death. It is then they thank 
God that they have their soggarth aroon by their side; 
and he never refuses to come, no matter how loathsome 
or dangerous the disease; no matter how biting the 
frost on a cold winter's night. 



; THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 8i 

^'Who was it on a winter's night, 

Soggarth aroon, 
When the cold blast did bite, 

Soggarth aroon; 
Came to my cabin door; 
And on my earthen floor, 
Knelt by me sick and poor, 

Soggarth aroon?" 

What wonder that the Irish people love their priests! 
What wonder that the tender affection they cherish 
for their clergy is the cause of no little envy in the 
hearts of non-Catholics and renegades from the 
Catholic Church! But there is one thing that the 
Irish people will never forget; and that is an act of 
kindness done them. They know^ that their priests 
did not forsake them when they had nothing to hope 
for from their flock; and when the same reward was 
offered for the head of a priest as for the head of a 
wolf. Yet the priests braved death itself in order to 
offer up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for their flock, 
in the depths of the forest, in the caverns of the earth, 
or on the lonely mountain side. 

No wonder that the generous-hearted Irish people 
sometimes show their appreciation by remembering 
their priests in their wills, even though it should shock 
the tender heart of Mr. McCarthy! It is very seldom 
indeed that the Irish, after satisfying the demands of 
the EngHsh Government, have the means thus to show 
their gratitude to their clergy ; but if in one case out of 
a hundred, a wealthy man should leave a little money 



82 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

for Masses, for the repose of his soul to what better 
use could he put it ? Do we not read in Holy Scripture 
itself that: "It is a holy and a wholesome thought 
to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from 
their sins"? 

However, Mr. McCarthy says that it would be better 
to leave the money to the poor. But the best way to 
reach the poor is through the priests, since they are 
always giving to the poor, though of course they do 
not sound a trumpet before them every time they give 
an alms. Our CathoUc people of means know this 
full well, and that is why they sometimes leave a be- 
quest to their priests; because they know they will 
put it to the very best use. 

We cannot better conclude this chapter than by 
referring to the beautiful poem of the late John Boyle 
O'Reilly entitled: ''The Priests of Ireland." If only 
Mr. McCarthy would read that grand production, 
I have no doubt that it would be of great benefit to 
him. What a contrast between McCarthy's splenetic 
attack on the Irish priests and John Boyle O'Reilly's 
noble, soul-stirring, eulogium: 

"Heaven bless you, priests of Ireland, 

You, the soggarth in the famine and the helper in the 

frost; 
You, whose shadow was a comfort when all other 
hope was lost." 

There is just as much contrast between John Boyle 
O'Reilly's estimate of the Irish priests and Michael 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 83 

McCarthy's as there is between the character of these 
two gentlemen themselves. McCarthy seems to be 
a poor soul that has shrunken away under the tyranny 
of the British Government, and is now so shrivelled 
up that it actually prefers to be in bondage; but the 
most debased slave of all is the one that kisses the 
chains which bind him. O'Reilly on the other hand 
was a grand, fearless, and noble character, who hated 
the EngHsh Government as the cause of all the poverty 
and misery of the Irish people, but loved his priests 
as the greatest benefactors of his race. Whom shall 
we believe, Michael McCarthy or John Boyle 
O'Reillv? 




CHAPTER II. 

Prosperity of England. 

S we intimated in our previous chapter, it would 
be manifestly unfair to compare a free and inde- 
pendent coimtry with one that has lost its in- 
dependence and has been for centuries ground 
down in the dust. In all ages the loss of a coun- 
try's freedom has affected it like a blight upon the 
crops. Just as soon as the bUght falls upon the 
crops they begin to wither and decay. So when- 
ever a country lost its independence, it invariably 
ceased to develop and straightway entered on its 
downward course. Thus Persia, Greece, Kome, and 
Carthage were great and prosperous as long as 
they retained their freedom, but what are they 
to-day ? So to compare the prosperity of Ireland and 
England at the present time would be the same as 
comparing the twelfth century with the twentieth; 
for Erin has never made any advancement since she 
came under the yoke of the Anglo-Saxon. On the 
contrary she has never ceased to go backward from 
that fatal period even to the present day. 

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that England 
has during that same period generally enjoyed great 
prosperity. But we shall now see that this prosperity 
has been gained by the robbery and spoHation of the 
weaker nations of the earth. We shall observe too 
that England's prosperity is not a genuine healthy 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 85 

prosperity; because the masses of her population are 
trodden down in poverty and degradation in order 
that a few of the privileged class may live in luxury 
and ease. 

There has never yet existed on this earth a nation 
that has been such a notorious spoiler as England. 
Everybody knows how shamefully she despoiled 
Ireland, not once but a dozen times; and now after 
she has taken everything that Ireland possessed, she 
has the effrontery to pose before the nations of the 
world as the generous conqueror; and she offers to 
sell back to the Irish at a twenty years' purchase the 
very land that she robbed from their forefathers. 
He is certainly a magnanimous thief who first de- 
spoils his victim and then offers to sell back to him 
the very property of which he has robbed him. 

Just as England robbed Ireland she despoiled 
Scotland and Wales Mkewise. Like that Httle animal 
called the weasel she, as it were, sucked the very hfe- 
blood from their veins and waxed fat on the very 
marrow of their bones. What wonder if Ireland, 
Scotland, and Wales would be poor, wretched, and 
emaciated ; while John Bull is growing more corpulent 
every day! 

But the British Isles were not a suflSciently wide 
field for the depredations of the Anglo-Saxon. History 
tells us how in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at a 
time when England and Spain were at peace, the 
English freebooter, Sir Francis Drake, enriched his 
native land by plundering the Spanish galleons re- 
turning from the West Indies laden with gold and 



86 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

silver. We can form some idea of the extent of Ms 
depredations from the fact that in a single Spanish 
ship which he captured he seized an enormous treasure 
amounting to $800,000. Yet, though his conduct was 
nothing more or less than piracy pure and simple, on 
his return to England, Queen Elizabeth visited him 
on board his ship and bestowed on him the order of 
knighthood for his distinguished services. 

But the treasures which thus far flowed into the 
coffers of England were nothing in comparison with 
what she was now to gain from the spohation of 
India. Before the discovery of America, India was 
looked upon as the richest and most fertile country 
in the world. For centuries vague traditions of its 
countless treasures hung Hke a vista over Europe; 
and the fondest dream of European navigators was 
to discover a shorter route to its golden shores. In 
fact it was whilst seeking for the East Indies that 
Columbus by mere accident discovered America. 

Judge then what must have been the spoils which 
England gained from the conquest of India, that 
land so noted for its gold, silver, and diamonds; its 
costly robes of silk, grand tapestries, and all the 
splendor of Oriental luxury. Suffice it to say that 
those English adventurers who went out thither poor 
and needy returned in a few years to dazzle their 
countrymen by their enormous wealth, so that they 
received the title of Nabobs, an appellation formerly 
applied to only the viceroys of India. The great 
English novelist, Mr. Thackeray, has an excellent 
description of the arrogance, the ostentation, and the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 87 

.vulgar display of wealth of these English Nabobs in 
his famous novel called ''Vanity Fair"; for one of 
its leading characters is a young man called Mr. 
Joseph Sedley, who went out as a clerk of the East 
India Company, accumulated an immense fortune, 
and then cane back to England to spend his wealth 
in riotousness and debauchery. But as the great 
Latin Poet, Virgil, said: ''Ex uno disce omnes.'' From 
the conduct of one you may judge them all; for as Mr. 
Sedley acted so did Lord CHve, Warren Hastings, and 
all the other EngUsh harpies despoil the natives on 
all sides. Even up to the present day England main- 
tains in India a standing army of 300,000 men besides 
T 45 ,000 police. This vast garrison has only one ob- 
ject in view, to rob the poor defenceless natives in 
order to enrich themselves and fill the EngHsh ex- 
chequer. As a result England derives every year 
from the internal revenue of her Indian empire 
$450,000,000, and her receipts for commerce with 
India amount to |6oo,ooo,oor. What wonder that 
England has become enormously wealthy from the 
spoliation of India! 

But alas! for India herself. She may well curse 
the day that the English first set foot upon her shores. 
Before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon India was blest 
with prosperity and plenty; because it is a country 
which is naturally most fertile and productive. Like 
the United States of America, it enjoys every variety 
of vegetation and climate, for it extends from the 
tropic shores of Bengal to the frigid regions of Mt. 
Everest, ^vith its peaks of perpetual snow. Hence 



88 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

in all the literature that has come down to us up to 
the eighteenth century, whether from the early Greek 
historians, or from the French, who controlled India 
before ever the English set foot upon the soil, or from 
the native Indian writers themselves, there is not even 
so much as a hint of any famine ever having visited 
that fertile country. Yet since the English became 
masters of the land it has been devastated by six 
terrible visitations of famine during which hundreds 
and thousands of people suffered the awful death of 
starvation in a country naturally flowing with milk 
and honey. We all remember how even in our own 
day, only a few years ago, whilst the English were 
shooting down the Boers, a brave people fighting for 
their rights, that same terrible scourge of famine again 
fell upon India and swept away tens of thousands of 
its population. 

English apologists make the excuse that these 
famines are due to the failure of the rice crops for lack 
of rain. But why did not the rice crop fail before 
the arrival of the English? Moreover, why should 
the natives of India confine their industry mainly to 
the cultivation of a little rice sufficient to keep body 
and soul together, when their lands are capable of 
producing all kinds of crops ? Is it not because they 
know it would be useless any longer to exert themselves 
to raise fine crops, when all the fruits of their labor 
will go only to enrich their English oppressors ? Have 
we not here an exact counterpart of the famine in 
Ireland owing to the failure of the potato crop? la 
both cases the real cause of the famine is not the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 89 

failure of the crops, but a cause whose roots go much 
further back than that, viz. EngKsh tyranny. 

As England has despoiled and impoverished India, 
so has she done to every country throughout the world 
wherever she could get a foothold, whether in Canada, 
AustraHa, or South Africa. It is the same story of 
tyranny and oppression everywhere. Canada was 
discovered, explored, and settled by France, yet like 
a genuine robber, England is to-day reaping the 
harvest planted by the French. AustraHa was dis- 
covered by the Spaniards and Dutch; but to-day they 
have not a single foot of territory in the whole con- 
tinent. England has grabbed it all. If England 
had no other foreign possessions but Australia, that 
alone should be sufficient to make her a rich and 
prosperous country. Just think of it — AustraHa pours 
every year into the lap of England the vast output 
of $28,000,000 in gold; the revenue from commerce 
amounts to $500,000,000 more; and the province of 
Victoria alone has already yielded over $1,000,000,000 
from her gold mines. 

Why then should we marvel that England is a more 
prosperous country than Ireland? Has not England 
the spoils of the whole world to enrich her? She 
may boast that on her dominions the sun never sets, 
which means nothing else than that the sim never 
sets on her robbery and spoHation; though we 
should expect that the sun and moon would hide 
their face in shame at the sight of her unblushing 
depredations. 

Still England is not yet satisfied. She has taken 



90 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

the lion as the symbol of her nation; but the king of 
beasts is far too noble an animal to be the emblem of 
England; for it is possible to satisfy the appetite of 
the hon and when his hunger is satiated he is a per- 
fectly harmless animal. The English should rather 
have taken as their national emblem the man-eating 
Bengal tiger, for he is never satisfied, because even 
when satisfied fully with food, he is still blood-thirsty 
for slaughter for the mere fiendish delight of it. So 
England, though she has already more than the lion's 
share of the world, still craves for more. 

It is not at all necessary to scan the pages of history 
in order to prove this. During the last few years we 
have had sufficient evidence of that under our own 
eyes. Wherever gold or silver, or diamonds have 
been discovered — no matter in what country — England 
has always under some pretext or another stepped in 
and said: ''This land belongs to me." Just as 
soon as gold was discovered in Alaska, England im- 
mediately set up a claim to the gold-fields of Klondyke. 
But, as the United States was not a weak nation that 
she could bully, she consented to submit the question 
to arbitration, and of course lost. 

Again, we remember how a few years ago when 
gold was discovered at the mouth of the Orinoco, 
England endeavored to get possession of the gold- 
fields for herself, claiming that they were in the terri- 
tory of British Guiana, though it was as plain as day 
that they belonged to Venezuela. England would 
hear nothing of arbitration then. Oh! no; until that 
grand old man of Democracv, Grover Cleveland, 



THK CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 91 

stepped in and quickly brought John Bull to his 
senses; as we have seen in Chapter VII. 

Oh! for an hour of Grover Cleveland a few years 
afterwards, when England was bullying the two little 
sister republics of South Africa, because they had the 
misfortune to have diamonds discovered within their 
borders. But alas! a very different man from Cleve- 
land then occupied the White House at Washington. 
McKinley was a very kind-hearted and amiable man, 
but also a very weak character who was very easily 
influenced. However, as he now bears upon his 
brow the halo of martyrdom, it would be unwise to 
cast any reflections upon him. Yet it must be ad- 
mitted that he was to a great extent dominated over 
by the late Eepublican leader, Mark Hanna. But 
as the proverb says: ^^ Nihil de mortuis nisi honum.^^ 
However, the greatest mistake of McKinley 's life- 
was in appointing as his Secretary of State a man who 
had just been the American ambassador to England 
and who had become so imbued with English ideas 
that he was in reality no longer an American at heart.. 
It is said that our American ambassadors to the Court 
of St. James become so dazzled with English high; 
society that only a very strong character can resist its; 
influence- Most of them become completely dis- 
Americanized ; but John Hay became the worst Anglo - 
maniac of them all. There is little doubt that it 
was under the influence of this man that President 
McKinley, though a descendant of Irish parents, dis- 
played such deplorable pro-English sympathies during 
his administration. In fact he made the United 



92 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

States the regular cat's-paw of England. Many 
Americans believe to this day that McKinley's whole 
foreign policy was directed from London by that 
astute English pohtician, Joseph Chamberlain. They 
are firmly convinced that it was Chamberlain that 
embroiled the United States in war with Spain over 
Cuba and directed her to seize upon the PhiKppine 
Islands, so that she might serve England as a counter- 
poise in the East against Russia. Thus the United 
States is indebted to John Hay and Joseph Chamber- 
lain for the vexatious problem of the Philippines 
which is puzzling her statesmen even to the present 
day, and seems likely to cause them much more trouble 
in future. Chamberlain himself seemed to acknowl- 
edge this in a speech to his constituents in England, 
when he declared that: "Though there was no al- 
liance between England and the United States, there 
was an understanding that was better than any 
treaty." No doubt it was by virtue of that ''under- 
standing" that during McKinley's administration, 
for the first time in the history of the United States, 
two Irish patriots just released from an Enghsh prison, 
were denied admission into this country, on the ground 
that they were convicts; yet their only crime was in 
defending their Country's rights ; and the great Amer- 
ican repubhc had always made it her proud boast 
that she had ever extended a welcome hand to the 
oppressed of all nations. Indeed, never before had 
the United States repelled from her shores any exile 
whose only offence was a political crime in behalf 
of freedom committed in the Old World. What 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 93 

wonder that one of these deported patriots exclaimed: 
*'Has the United States then humiliated herself to be 
once more a mere colony of England? The only- 
thing now needed to complete her degradation is to 
hoist the Union Jack at Washington above the Stars 
and Stripes." 

But the most shameful and disgraceful proceeding 
of all on the part of McKinley and Hay was to allow 
England to strangle to death the two heroic little re- 
publics of South Africa without a word of protest. 
Nay, more, they actually permitted England to estab- 
lish a camp near New Orleans for the purchase of 
American mules, to ride down the poor Boer farmers; 
and it is the opinion of Colonel Blake, that brave 
American, who fought side by side with the Boers, as 
the leader of the Irish Brigade, and afterwards wrote 
the history of the war, that but for the assistance which 
England thus derived from the United States she 
would have been ignominiously defeated. Well 
therefore may the United States blush through shame 
for her share in this nefarious deed; for have we not 
in the destruction of the two South African Republics 
an exact counterpart of the biblical narrative con- 
cerning the robbery and murder of Naboth by Achab 
and Jezabel, in order to get possession of his vine- 
yard? But just as the anger of God afterwards fell 
upon the guilty pair and they paid the penalty with 
their Hfe, so doubtless God's wrath will also be finally 
kindled against guilty England for all her robberies 
and all the blood she has shed. As our gifted Irish- 
American poet, James Jeffrey Roche, has well said: 



[ THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Her robes are of purple and scarlet, 
And the kings have bent their knees 

To the gemmed and jeweled harlot 
Who sitteth on many seas. 

They have drunk the abominations, 

Of her golden cup of shame; 
She has drugged and debauched the nations 

With the mystery of her name. 

Her merchants have gathered riches 

By the power of her wantoness. 
And her usurers are as leeches 

On the world's supreme distress. 

She has scoured the seas as a spoiler, 

Her mart is a robber's den, 
With the wasted toil of the toiler. 

And the mortgaged souls of men. 

Her crimson flag is flying 

Where the East and West are one; 

Her drums while the day is dying 
Salute the rising sun. 

She has scourged the weak and the lowly 

And the just with an iron rod ; 
She is drunk with the blood of the holy — 

She shall drink of the wrath of God. 

If a private individual behaved as England has been 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 



95 



acting for centuries, he would be instantly cast into 
prison. Indeed many a man is now in prison for 
life for doing only on a small scale what England has 
been perpetrating for fifteen hundred years. 

A few weeks ago the police of London captured 
a woman who was called the "Queen of Burglars." 
Her arrest caused a great sensation in England, be- 
cause until then she had been considered a lady of 
exemplary character. She moved in the highest 
society and was widely noted for her charitable and 
philanthropic deeds. She had a splendid villa in the 
suburbs of London, most gorgeously furnished, and 
ishe drove through the streets of the capital in a stately 
carriage, drawn by a span of horses, driven by a 
footman in stylish livery. She dressed hke a queen 
and had servants galore. Yet, who would believe 
it? — all that luxury and grandeur she acquired by 
burglarizing her neighbors' houses at the dead of 
night, and so skilfully did she cover up her tracks that 
for a long time not a breath of suspicion fell upon her. 
Even the Scotland Yard detectives, supposed to be the 
cleverest in the world, failed to entrap her. 

There we have an exact counterpart of England, 
that has so long passed before the other nations of the 
world as an exemplary power, which has become 
prosperous through the industry and enterprise of 
her citizens; when in reality nearly all her wealth has 
been accumulated from the robbery and spoliation 
of the weaker nations of the earth. Hence the poet 
has well said that 

''Her mart is a robber's der"; 



96 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

for, though there are thousands of honest English- 
men who would rather cut ofiF theu* right hand than 
steal, what is the property of the great English lords 
but the spoil of the world? 

Yet, in spite of all her plundering and spoliation for 
centuries, England is not blest with a genuine healthy- 
prosperity. We cannot call that country truly prosjper- 
ous where the great mass of the people are ground 
down in poverty and wretchedness in order to keep a 
few privileged individuals rolHng in wealth and lolling 
in idleness. But that is exactly the kind of prosperity 
which England enjoys. It is true, a few of her princes, 
lords, earls, and dukes possess sumptuous mansions, 
immense demesnes, and a great retinue of servants; 
but, as we have seen, all this splendor has been derived 
from the plunder of the world. 

However, as the proverb says: "What's got badly, 
goes badly." Many of these nobles? instead of spend- 
ing their wealth for the elevation of their fellow-men, 
the encouragement of commerce, and the promotion 
of industry, rather squander it in gambHng at the 
Derby or Ascot races or in the notorious gambhng 
resort of Monte Carlo. In fact many of them have 
thus squandered away a princely estate, and then, in 
order to repair their wasted fortunes sent orders to 
rack-rent still more their poor unfortunate tenants 
in England or Ireland. Other spendthrift nobles are 
obliged to mortgage their ancestral estates to the last 
penny and then strive to redeem their patrimony by 
coming out to the United States to seek in marriage 
the hand of a rich American heiress who is so foolish 



f THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 97 

as to purchase an empty title with her father's im- 
mense wealth. Thus these proud English lords have 
become the laughing-stock of the Western Continent, 
and you can scarcely take up a comic journal without 
noticing the most ludicrous caricatures of them. 

But alas for the common people ! Who can describe 
the misery and wretchedness in which they are 
steeped ? In glaring contrast to the gorgeous splendor 
and grandeur of the EngHsh nobility is the abject 
and forlorn condition of the common people of 
Britain. Notwithstanding her boasted prosperity, 
there is no country on the face of the earth where so 
much misery and wretchedness exists among the great 
mass of the people as in England. To be convinced 
of this all that is necessary is to read that learned 
work entitled: "Protestant and Catholic Countries 
Compared." This book was written by the late 
great missionary, Father Young, a PauUst priest, who 
had travelled extensively in England and made a 
critical study of her social system, so that he certainly 
knew whereof he spoke. Moreover, as he was a 
convert to CathoKcity, and likewise of English descent, 
it cannot very logically be asserted that he was 
prejudiced against England. 

But he is not by any means the only author who has 
left us a most vivid description of the degraded state 
of the English masses. There is another book equally 
learned on the subject written by an American Prot- 
estant gentleman, who relates to us what he witnessed 
with his own eyes less than thirty years ago. We 
refer to the famous work of Charles Lester entitled: 



98 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

"The Glory and Shame of England." The effect of 
perusing such a book is simply appalling. There is 
no better proof of the old adage: "Truth is stranger 
than fiction"; for not even the wildest flight of the 
imagination would have led us to suspect that there 
existed so much poverty and wretchedness in England 
did we not find it narrated by such unquestionable 
authority. EngUsh travellers may marvel at the 
wretchedness and poverty in the desolate regions of 
Connemara, in the west of Ireland, but even there 
after all the desolation wrought by the tyranny of 
England and the extortion of EngHsh landlords, 
there is nothing in all Ireland that can com- 
pare with the poverty and wretchedness in a great 
English city like London or Liverpool. Mr. Lester 
assures us that the social condition of twenty per cent, 
of the population of these two cities is far more de- 
graded than that of the Helots of ancient Greece or 
the West Indian slaves before their emancipation. 
Their dwellings are only wretched cellars ten or twelve 
feet square and six feet high, where father, mother, and 
children of all ages and sexes are huddled together 
like cattle, with a total disregard of all the decencies 
of life. Certainly no Esquimaux or African savage 
would or could live in such awful dens. 

But we are not required to accept this starthng 
narration on the word of a foreigner, however un- 
prejudiced, for the EngHsh themselves admit it with 
shame. A committee appointed by the Cambridge 
University, in 1850, to investigate the social condition 
of the poor reported that "they were in a more de- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 99 

graded condition than even the beasts in the field and 
that their wretchedness, filth, and degradation were 
a disgrace to any civilized country." 

We may therefore readily believe Mr. Lester when 
he assures us that: "There is more misery, more 
acute suffering among the mass of the people of Eng- 
land than there is in any other kingdom of the world. 
There are thousands homeless, breadless, friendless, 
without shelter, raiment or hope in the world ; millions 
uneducated, only half- fed, driven to crime and every 
species of vice which ignorance and destitution bring 
in their train, to an extent utterly unknown to the less 
enhghtened, the less free, the less favored, and the 
less powerful kingdoms of Europe." 

But still more dreadful is the account taken by Mr. 
Lester from an English journal of the horrible degrada- 
tion existing among the operators in the local mines of 
England : 

"The infernal cruelties practiced upon boys and 
girls in the coal mines, those graves of comfort and 
virtue, have never in any age been outdone. We 
have sometimes read with shuddering disgust of the 
outrages committed upon helpless children by men 
in naked savageness. We aver our belief that in cold- 
blooded atrocity they do not equal what is going on 
from day to day in some of our coal mines. Young 
creatures, both male and female, six, seven, eight, 
nine years old, stark naked in some cases, chained 
like brutes to coal carriages, and dragging them on 
all fours through sludge six and seven inches deep, 
in total darkness for ten, twenty, and in special in- 

LofC. 



loo THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

stances thirty hours successively, without any other 
cessation even to get meals than is usually afforded 
by the unreadiness of the miners. Here is a pretty 
picture of British civihzation ! " What wonder that 
John Ruskin called the Enghsh coal mines "Hell- 
pits"! 

Perhaps our readers will imagine that a great im- 
provement has taken place among the Enghsh masses 
during the last thirty years, since Mr. Lester wrote 
his famous book , and that all the old social evils have 
been aboHshed. But that is a great mistake. They 
still exist as flagrantly as ever. Even so strenuous 
an imperiahst as Joseph Chamberlain in an article 
in the London Fortnightly Review as recently as 
December, 1883, thus wrote: i 

"Never before in our history were wealth and the 
evidences of wealth more abundant; and never be- 
fore was the misery of the poor more intense, or the 
condition of their daily life more hopeless or more 
degraded. England has a milhon of paupers and a 
million more are on the verge of it." 

But, lest our critics may allege that our data is be- 
hind the times and that our statistics are not up-to- 
date, we now introduce as it were a flash-light picture 
of Enghsh social Hfe far more recent than anything 
we have so far presented. It is a very able article 
by Judson Grenell in the Boston Sunday Herald, 
dated June 26, 1904. Surely we want nothing more 
recent than that. 

The author relates how, in his travels through Eng- 
land, he came to the town of Cradley Heath, one of the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON loi 

suburbs of Birmingham, the home of the irrepressible 
Joseph Chamberlain, and there what a dreadful sight 
met his gaze I Women whom he styles: "Female 
Vulcans" were actually working at the forge like 
men, with one hand operating the bellows and the 
other wielding the hammer at the laborious task of 
making chains. Yet for this arduous labor all that 
they received for wages was thirty-six cents a day. 
Can we imagine anything more humiUating or more 
degrading to womanhood than this? Search all the 
books of ancient and modern times and you will find 
nothing so revolting eVen among the Pagans of old. 
What wonder that the author declares that "Many 
of these poor women appeared hard-visaged and others 
sought for consolation in the beer glass"; for is not 
such unnatural toil sufficient to demoralize any 
woman? Where but in England can such a horrible 
state of affairs be found? Ireland with all her 
poverty and misery would never allow her women to 
degrade themselves to such a level. 

What is the cause of such a dreadful condition of 
things as exists in England even at this period of en- 
lightenment, the opening of the twentieth century? 
It is all due to the English Government and its iniqui- 
tous system, which exploits the great mass of the popu- 
lation and reduces them to misery and degradation 
in order that the lords and gentry may live in idleness 
and luxury. As Mr. Lester says: "The Govern- 
ment of England is a government of privileges and 
monopolies: the few are born booted and spurred to 
ride over the many. The working classes are de- 



it>'2 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

graded and oppressed. All but the privileged classes 
are taxed from their birth to their death. All are 
taxed to pamper a haughty aristocracy and the 
privileged orders." 

"The great crime of England lies in sustaining a 
system which oppresses, starves, and brutalizes the 
masses of her subjects. The Government of England 
makes poor men poorer and the rich men richer. I 
therefore say that no population can be found on the 
fearth that see so much luxury and have so few of the 
necessaries of life, that dwell in such filthy hovels and 
dens, that bask so little in the sunshine of heaven." 

What is really needed is some industrial shock to 
the whole British nation which will direct the gaze 
of the people to the real cause of their poverty and 
social degradation. There is only one remedy — to 
abolish the House of Lords entirely, do away with all 
the privileged classes, and make all men equal before 
the law, as in the United States. Then all the natural 
resources of the country will no longer be monopo- 
lized by a few privileged lords and gentry who reap 
where they have not sown and who compel miUions 
of people to crowd into foul slums in order that they 
and their children may sit in the lap of luxury and be 
denied nothing. When will the English people learn 
the lesson? 



CHAPTER III. 
Celtic and Saxon Architecture and Art. 

BESIDES victory in war and prosperity in peace^, 
there are several other marks which indicate 
the superiority of one nation over another. 
Prominent among these are skill in the fine arts, such 
as architecture, sculpture, and painting; proficiency 
in science, such as astronomy and philosophy; and 
preeminence in literature, music and poetry. 

Who that has ever gazed on the ruins of ancient 
Egypt, its famous pyramids and its renowned sphinx 
has failed to be convinced of its great superiority in 
civilization over other nations of the same period? 
Where is the traveller who has ever set eyes on the 
ruins of ancient Greece, its AcropoHs, its Parthenon, 
its Atheanaeum and its Areopagus, and can doubt that 
thousands of years ago it far excelled in civilization 
all the other nations of antiquity by which it was 
then surrounded? 

So, too, the ruins of the old Roman Colisseum and 
the Arch of Titus are sufficient to convince us that the 
old Romans had arrived at a very high degree of 
civilization before the downfall of their empire. 

When we come to draw a comparison between Irish 
and Enghsh art, certainly we have no reason to be 
ashamed of our ancestors. It is true, English writers 
sometimes reproach us because our forefathers once 
lived in houses of wicker-work covered over with 



I04 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

reeds; but they should remember that this was before 
the introduction of Christianity; and this was the 
very same style of house which existed in France 
and Germany at that period. In fact even up to the 
last century many of the Highlanders of Scotland built 
their dwelKngs after the very same fashion. 

But in the course of time the artistic skill of our 
ancestors developed and in the middle ages all classes 
dwelt in comfortable houses of wood — far better 
houses than the majority of the inhabitants possess 
now after the inestimable blessing of seven cen- 
turies of Anglo-Saxon civilization. It was during 
the middle ages also that the Irish constructed 
against the incursions of the Danes those famous 
Round Towers, which are the wonder of tourists 
even to this day and are the nearest approach to 
the pyramids of ancient Egypt. So substantially 
were they constructed that after centuries many of 
them have defied the gnawing tooth of time even to 
the present hour. 

However, it was in the construction of their churches 
and monasteries that the Irish exhibited their greatest 
architectural skill and proved themselves a most 
distinctly religious people. Nothing is more interest- 
ing whilst travelling through Ireland now than to study 
the ruins of the magnificent Irish chmrches and abbeys 
erected over a thousand years ago, for they are beauti- 
ful even in their desolation and loudly attest the 
architectural skiU of our ancestors. All these great 
reHgious edifices were constructed of stone in the 
Romanesque style, with the circular arch. The walls 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 105 

were tastefully adorned and the capitols gracefully 
ornamented with figures totally unlike anything in 
England or the continent; which shows clearly that 
the work was executed by native artists and that the 
Irish at that time were skilful not only at architecture 
but Ukewise at sculpture and painting. The gigantic 
crosses and crucifixes of the Saviour erected also at 
this period are splendid testimonials of Irish art; and 
the Celtic cross has since then become famous all 
over the world. 

But the golden age of Irish art was just before the 
EngHsh invasion, in the twelfth century under the 
great Irish King, Turlough O 'Conor, who may justly 
be called the Augustus of Western Ireland, if not of 
Western Europe. During his long reign of fifty years 
he built the splendid Cathedral of Tuam and several 
other beautiful churches and monasteries, through the 
instrumentality of that great Irish family of architects 
called the O'Duffys, who were to Ireland what 
Macenas was to Rome or Phidias to Athens. 

In strange contrast to this architectural skill of our 
forefathers was the obtuseness of the early Anglo- 
Saxons who landed in Britain; for they gave no 
evidence of any artistic skill at all, unless indeed we 
call plundering an art; and at that they were adepts. 
They did not even construct their own dwellings but 
simply took possession of the houses which they 
robbed from their lawful owners, the Britons. When 
these abodes fell into decay they would not so much 
as take the pains to repair them. What wonder that 
the historian, Guest, though himself an Englishman, 



iQ(5 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

is obliged to confess that at the time of the Norman 
conquest of England in the eleventh century the Eng- 
glish dwelt in ''mean and despicable houses." In 
fact to-day throughout the length and breadth of the 
land our modem EngHsh people cannot point out 
a single monument or edifice that would testify to the 
artistic skill of their ancestors. 

But from the time of the Norman conquest a new 
day of architectural splendor began to dawn over 
England; so that the subjugation of Britain by William 
the Conqueror was really a great blessing in disguise. 
The Normans, having learned from their French 
neighbors the arts and sciences which had been taught 
them by their Roman masters, were skilful architects 
and built many beautiful and stately churches far 
superior to any yet seen in England. Many of the 
most famous Enghsh cathedrals were erected at this 
period. It is true the celebrated Westminster Abbey 
was erected just before the Norman conquest; but 
it was built by Edward the Confessor, whose mother 
was French, whilst he himself was educated in Nor- 
mandy and was far more French than Enghsh. The 
original structure in the Romanesque style, with 
rounded arches, was torn down later by King Henry 
III. and a nobler edifice in the Gothic style, with 
pointed arches was erected in its stead. This with 
a few modifications is the modern Westminster Abbey, 
which has survived to the present day and which 
Enghshmen with pardonable pride call: "the love- 
Hest thing in Christendom." 

Another religious structure of which the EngHsk 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 107 

are very proud is the Canterbury Cathedral; but the 
church which is the idol of their heart is St. Paul's 
Cathedral in London. Yet an American priest who 
has travelled all over Europe has assured me that it 
is only a poor imitation of St. Peter's Cathedral in 
Rome. 

We fail therefore to see how England with all her 
resources displays any superiority in art over Ireland. 
Who could blame poor Ireland at the present day if 
she did not possess imposing churches and gorgeous 
cathedrals like other nations, since she has been de- 
spoiled of all her resources by England? What in- 
centive had the Irish to demonstrate their architec- 
tural skill, when, as the poet says: 

''Chill penury repressed their noble rage 1 

And froze the genial current of the soul"t 

Yet, in spite of every drawback, Irish art even at the 
present day will not suffer much in comparison with 
the Anglo-Saxon. The Irish cities of Dublin and 
Cork, though not by any means as large or opulent as 
London or Liverpool, nevertheless display in their 
pubHc buildings a skill in architecture not surpassed 
by the proudest city in England. But where is the 
church throughout all England that surpasses the 
new Cathedral of Queenstown, which eminent judges 
declare to be one of the handsomest churches in the 
world? Yet it is said that the Cathedral just com- 
pleted at Armagh is even more magnificent than that 
at Queenstown. 



io8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

It is true, in those arts which are more ornamental 
than useful, such as fine statues and paintings, 
Ireland is sadly deficient. She cannot exhibit beauti- 
ful art museums such as the Louvre in Paris or the 
Vatican in Rome. She has been too much occupied 
for centuries defending her very existence from the 
tyranny of England to turn her attention to aesthetics. 
But even England with all the riches of her spoils has 
not very much to boast of in this respect. A short 
time ago a very enterprising firm, Selmar Hess & Co., 
of New York, pubUshed a sketch of over two hundred 
of the most famous men and women of history. In 
this learned work we find the biography of all the great 
artists of the world. Greece has her Phidias; Italy 
her Leonardo, Bramante, Raphael and Michael Angelo ; 
France her Millet, Meissonier and Gerome; Holland 
her Rembrandt and Germany her Albert Durer. All 
these were artists of world-wide reputation and de- 
serve to have a tablet in the hall of fame. It is of 
their names that we think whenever the word artist 
is mentioned. But where are England's artists skilled 
in statuary and painting? The only EngHsh artist 
who was considered at all worthy to have his name 
associated with these immortals was William Hogarth. 
I feel quite certain that even his name was inserted 
by mistake, for the only two paintings which give him 
any claim to fame have the subhme title of: "The 
Harlot's Progress," and "The Rake's Progress." 
Shades of Raphael and Michael Angelo! how can 
you endure to have this Enghsh dross classified with 
your own heavenly-inspired productions? 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 109 

It is true, nevertheless, that if you visit the British 
museum you will perceive a great many beautiful 
statues and paintings; but it must be remembered 
that these are not the original productions of English 
artists. On the contrary, they are generally only a, 
copy, and sometimes a very imperfect one, of some 
great masterpiece executed by a French or Italian 
artist. The native English art is very inferior indeed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Celt and the Saxon in the Realms of 
Science. 

WHY should we continue our comparisons be- 
tween the Celts and the Saxons when the 
Enghsh themselves tacitly acknowledge that 
the Irish are the superior race? We have seen how 
England at one time positively forbade any commerce 
or manufactures on the part of Ireland. What is 
this but an impHcit admission that the Irish were the 
better business men, to be dreaded as dangerous com- 
petitors? Again we have observed how in the penal 
days the English Parhament prohibited, under the 
severest penalty, any Irishman from educating his 
children at home or abroad. What is this, too, but an 
unwilling acknowledgment that the Irish were nat- 
urally the more intelligent race and that the English 
could compete with them successfully only when they 
were reduced to a state of ignorance? 

The penal laws of England accomplished their 
dastardly work, though not as thoroughly as their 
authors had hoped. Although many of our forefathers, 
despite every danger, kept the lamp of learning still 
burning brightly in their souls, yet the fine intellect 
of many others was obscured by lack of mental train- 
ing on account of England's penal laws, because, as 
the poet said: 

"Fair knowledge to their minds her ample page 
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll." 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON m 

It is quite true that during the last fifty years re- 
morse of conscience has caused John Bull to make 
some amends for his past misconduct by estabHshing 
the national schools all over Ireland. Since then it is 
unquestionable that there has been a great revival 
of learning among the Irish people, especially of the 
younger generation. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied 
that there still exists a lamentable want of culture 
among the children of Erin, because the clouds of 
ignorance that had been accumulating for centuries 
cannot be put to flight in an hour. 

Hence up to a very recent date it was quite fashion- 
able for EngHsh writers to marvel at the ignorance of 
the Irish and to declare that their illiteracy was 
beyond all comprehension. Some bigots have even 
asserted that the Irish were kept in ignorance by 
the CathoUc Church for her own selfish pur- 
pose. So the poor Irishman was made the butt of 
every ancient EngHsh witticism, if indeed the English- 
man possesses any wit, and the laughing-stock of 
every '* smart" English comedian. But if these 
English were not the most consummate hypocrites, 
they would frankly acknowledge that if the Irish are 
ignorant their lack of culture is the work of their own 
hands and those of their fathers. What a spectacle 
for angels and men, to prevent a noble race from re- 
ceiving an education and then to reproach them for 
their ignorance! 

However, it was not always thus. More than 
fifteen centuries ago, when, as the Enghsh historian. 
Guest, says: (Guesfs English History, page 47) **The 



112 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

English hardly deserved a better name than sea- 
wolves and pirates," Ireland was already noted for 
her science and learning, her schools and her scholars. 
To be convinced of this all that is necessary is to read 
that learned book of the great Irish Bishop, Rt. Rev. 
J. Healy, entitled: "Ireland's Ancient Schools and 
Scholars." 

Our Irish forefathers were highly civilized even be- 
fore ever St. Patrick brought the light of Christianity 
to their shores. What was so rare at that time, they 
knew how to read and write, though we cannot 
say the same thing now after seven centuries of Anglo- 
Saxon enUghtenment. At the present day we are 
accustomed to look upon Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and 
Cambridge Universities as very venerable because they 
were founded a few centuries ago ; but it is a historical 
fact that the great Irish King, Cormack, estabhshed 
a college at Tara, nearly seventeen centuries ago, about 
two hundred years before ever the Anglo-Saxons set 
foot in Britain. The course of study in that college 
included such subjects as history, poetry, military 
tactics, and jurisprudence. 

However, it was only after the introduction of 
Christianity that learning and science bloomed forth 
in Ireland like a beautiful lily in all its grandeur, and 
for three centuries Ireland became known all over 
Europe as the ''Island of Saints and Scholars." This 
was no empty, high-sounding name ; for, as if by magic, 
a score of celebrated schools or colleges sprung up all 
over the island. To narrate the merits of each of 
these great institutions of learning would be an endless 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 113 

task. In order not to weary the reader with details, 
we shall confine ourselves to the description of one 
of the most famous. As Virgil says: ^^Ex uno disce 
omnesy From a single one we may judge all. 

Perhaps the most celebrated of all the great Irish 
colleges was the renowned School of Armagh. It is 
supposed to have been founded by St. Patrick himself 
and seems to have been primarily a theological semi- 
nary. But soon it branched forth and developed into 
one of the most celebrated universities in Europe. 
One of its first presidents was St. Gildas surnamed 
the Wise on accpunt of his great learning and so 
famous did the university become under his guidance 
that crowds of students flocked over from England 
to hear him. In fact so numerous did they become 
after a while that one particular part of the city had to 
be set apart for their accommodation, after the manner 
of the Latin Quarter in Paris at the present day. We 
are not required to accept this on the authority of an 
Irish historian, for we have it on the testimony of 
an English author, the Venerable Bede of the seventh 
century. How exceedingly grateful should not Eng- 
land be to Ireland for having thus instructed her youth 
at the great fountains of learning! Yet what base 
ingratitude she displayed afterwards by making it a 
penal offence for an Irishman to educate his children 
at home or abroad 1 

Not only was Ireland full of saints and scholars 
herself, but she likewise sent forth a vast number of 
missionaries and eminent scientists to bestow upon 
other less favored nations of Europe the blessings of 



114 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Christianity and the light of civiHzation. At the 
present day our Scotch Highlanders, or as they are 
sometimes called, the Scotch-Irish may boast as they 
please, but they must admit that it was from the great 
Irish missionary, St. Columba, that they received the 
light of the gospel and the first rudiments of civiUza- 
tion. No less remarkable was another great Irish 
missionary, St. Columbanus, who brought the glad 
tidings of the true faith to the people of Switzerland. 

But probably still more famous was the celebrated 
Irish missionary, St. Virgilius, who preached the 
gospel in Bavaria and afterwards became Archbishop 
of Salzburg, in the eighth century. Though a great 
theologian and a powerful preacher, he was still more 
renowned as a scientist. When we speak of science 
as it existed a thousand years ago, we must remember 
that it was not nearly as developed then as at the 
present day. The age of modern science had not 
yet begun to dawn. There was scarcely any such 
thing as science in the present sense of the word. 
Chemistry, Geology, and Biology, were then unknown, 
and even Astronomy was only in its cradle. Yet even 
at that remote period this Irish missionary, St. Vir- 
gilius, manifested a knowledge of science centuries in 
advance of his time; for he actually taught that the 
earth was a sphere, though during hundreds of years 
before and after him, even down to the time of Colum- 
bus, in the fifteenth century, it was the common behef 
of mankind that the earth was a flat surface, with the 
ocean surging round it. 

In the following century, history tells us of a still 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 115 

more expert scientist, by the name of Dungal. Strange 
to say, he was an Irish monk, and so great was his 
fame that even the Emperor Charlemagne himself 
wrote to him for an explanation of the two solar eclipses 
which are said to have occurred in the year 810. The 
letter of Dungal in reply is still preserved in the Ar- 
chives of France; it is written in excellent Latin, and 
it is very doubtful if even the most learned scientist 
of the present day could give a more lucid exposition 
of the cause of an eclipse than that given by this 
Irish monk, a thousand years ago. 

But the king of air the Irish scholars before the 
EngUsh conquest of Ireland was a man by the name 
of John Scotus Erigena. He was undoubtedly the 
most learned man in all Western Europe during the 
ninth century. So great was his learning that he 
was spoken of like Plato as the ''Master" by excel- 
lence, and was considered as " a miracle of knowledge." 
He was certainly one of the greatest philosophers that 
the world has ever seen and his name will ever be 
ranked with those of Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. 
Thomas Aquinas. As the Dominicans have their 
champion in St. Thomas Aquinas, so the Franciscans 
follow the teaching of Scotus, and are called Scotists. 

So distinguished did Scotus become that the French 
King, Charles the Bald, invited him to his Court, made 
him head of the royal academy in his own palace, and 
afterwards promoted him to be the Rector of the Royal 
School of Paris. It was there that he wrote the great 
work on Predestination which has made his name 
famous. It is true this book was once placed tem- 



ii6 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

porarily under the ban of the Church. However, it 
must be well understood that it was not in reality 
the teachings of Scotus that were condemned, but 
other doctrines attributed to him by his enemies, but 
which he never professed. 

Like many other good things which Ireland has 
produced, both England and Scotland have claimed 
Scotus as their own. We should not be astonished 
at this, since they have lately laid claim even to St> 
Patrick himself. But anyone who has the least 
knowledge of the Irish tongue will see at a glance that 
the very surname of Scotus is sufficient evidence to 
prove that he was an Irishman, not an Englishman or 
a Scot. 

Since the English conquest of Erin, the island has 
not produced any more scientists or philosophers 
like Dungal, Virgilius, or Scotus. A blight seemed 
immediately to fall on the mental development of 
the Irish ; which is the greatest condemnation of Eng- 
lish misgovernment of Ireland. Nevertheless, a few 
geniuses like Thomas Moore, Henry Grattan, and 
Daniel O'Connell beamed forth from time to time 
like stars in the heavens. However, this was not due 
to Anglo-Saxon civilization, but in spite of it. Yet,, 
though England has now held her rival bound down 
in chains and slavery for seven hundred years, what 
has she to-day that can compare with Erin's glorious 
record in science and learning? 

As we have already observed, the first Anglo-Saxons 
who settled in Britain were a band of rude barbarians, 
and whatever knowledge or civilization they acquired ^ 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 117 

they received either from the missionaries of the 
CathoHc Church, who went over to convert them, or 
else in the celebrated schools of Ireland. 

Even the famous English author, Alcuin, who was 
one of the most distinguished scholars of Europe dur- 
ing the eighth century, completed his education in 
Ireland, though his English biographer seems un- 
wilHng to give Erin credit for it; because in English 
history it is stated that he was educated in the famous 
EngHsh school of York. Fortunately, however, there 
still exists a letter written by Alcuin from the Court of 
France to his former professor in Ireland, which shows 
clearly that he was once a student in the great Irish 
school of Clonmacnoise, near the modern city of 
Athlone, as we read in the ''Ancient Schools and 
Scholars of Ireland," by Bishop Healy. 

For five hundred years after Alcuin, England did 
not produce a single scientist or philosopher worthy 
of the name, until the rise of Roger Bacon in the 
thirteenth century. 

To give him his due, he certainly was one of the 
most brilliant philosophers and scientists of his day 
so that he received from his contemporaries the title 
of "Doctor Mirabilis." Yet, when our modem Eng- 
lish writers talk so glibly of the middle ages, which 
they call the "Dark Ages;" when they declaim so 
eloquently about the ignorance of the monks of old; 
when they denounce the Catholic Church as the sworn 
enemy of science, they httle dream that the great 
Roger Bacon himself was a Franciscan monk who 
completed his studies, like many of his countrymen, 



ii8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

at the Catholic University of Paris, where he received 
the degree of Doctor of Theology. 

His principal work was the ^^Opus Majus" or great 
took in which he abandons entirely the old deductive 
system of philosophy and strives to inaugurate a new 
process of acquiring science by means of observation 
and experiment. He might have been successful if 
he had been more discreet, but his intemperate zeal 
in the cause of science prompted him to abuse Scholas- 
ticism, the prevailing philosophy of that time, and to 
make the most violent attacks upon the clergy who 
would not accept his new scientific theories. Finally 
his language became so abusive that he was impris- 
oned by the members of his own order, but was soon 
released by order of the Pope himself. Nevertheless, 
instead of learning a lesson from past experience, he 
soon became more insubordinate than ever and was 
incarcerated the second time, though some modem 
historians make the ridiculous assertion that he was 
cast into prison because he so excelled in science the 
people of his time that he was regarded as a sor- 
cerer. But it is very hard to see any grounds for 
regarding him as a magician. Some English writers 
of recent date claim that he was acquainted with 
the use of the telescope two centuries before its 
invention by Gahleo and that he understood the 
principle of the locomotive hundreds of years 
before James Watt invented the steam engine. But 
these assertions are based rather on fancy or legend 
than on real authentic history. So the only rational 
ground for accusing Bacon of sorcery was that in spite 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 119. 

of all his scientific knowledge some nonsensical 
speculation was mingled with it; for, like most learned 
men of his time, he believed in astrology, that so- 
called science which regulates the destinies of men 
by the stars, and also the philosopher's stone, which 
was supposed to have the power of changing the baser 
metals into gold. 

Yet, notwithstanding all his mistakes, Roger Bacon 
did a great deal for science by calHng the attention of 
men to the investigation of nature and to the ob- 
servance of natural phenomena. Three centuries 
later, a namesake of his, Francis Bacon, developed 
the principles laid down by Roger Bacon and upon 
them as a foundation built up an elaborate system of 
inductive philosophy which has prevailed to the 
present day. Hence Francis Bacon is called ''the 
father of modern science," though it would seem 
far more just to bestow the title on the Franciscan 
friar, Roger Bacon, who sowed the seed, while 
Francis Bacon reaped the harvest. However, both 
made a great mistake in discountenancing entirely 
the old deductive system of philosophy, for it is now 
universally recognized that in the acquisition of 
science deduction and induction must go hand in 
hand. 

Long after the time of Francis Bacon it was almost 
universally accepted as a fact that almost all scientific 
progress of modern times was due to the scientific 
method which he perfected. Recently, however, a 
more moderate view has begun to prevail and it is now 
the general opinion of scientists that Francis Bacon 



120 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

as a philosopher has been considerably overrated. 
Yet it cannot be denied that it was his inductive 
system that led another great English scientist, Sir 
Isaac Newton, to discover the law of universal gravita- 
tion from the mere fall of an apple from the tree. 
On the same principle he ascertained the cause of the 
rotation of the earth on its axis, the rise and fall of the 
tides of the ocean, and the motion of all the planets 
in the heavens. This was undoubtedly one of the 
grandest of modern discoveries and crowned Newton 
as the greatest of all EngUsh scientists. Yet even 
Newton himself acknowledged that his law of gravita- 
sion is based on the discoveries of a great German 
scientist by the name of Kepler. 

But, since the time of Newton, a period of more than 
two hundred years, England has not produced a single 
scientist or philosopher worthy of the name. With 
the exception of Joseph Priestly, who discovered 
oxygen in 1776, and Dr. Jenner, who invented vacci- 
nation as an antidote against the terrible scourge of 
small-pox in 1796, not another EngHshman has added 
one additional fact to the sum total of scientific 
truth. 

It is true, during the last two centuries England 
has given birth to a great many so-called scientists 
aind philosophers, such as Hobbes, Locke, Hume, 
Spencer, Mill, Tyndall, Huxley, and Darwin; but their 
writings are as entangled as an African jungle and the 
poor men seem to be continually groping their way 
in the dark. They all seemed to consider it a sign 
of superior intelligence to call in question all that 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON lai 

their Christian ancestors had considered sacred for 
nineteen hundred years. 

Some hke Hobbes and Spencer denied the existence 
of free-will; others Uke Hume were mere sceptics or 
doubters, and alleged that it was impossible to attain 
certainty of any kind; but the great majority like 
Huxley and Tyndall were not indeed downright athe- 
ists or infidels who denied the very existence of God, 
yet they declared that God was unknown and un- 
knowable. They did not deny that there might be 
some first great cause, some such wonderful being, 
whom men called God, but they candidly confessed 
that they did not know. Hence they were called 
Agnostics, or know-nothings — a very good name for 
them indeed — for Holy Scripture says that: '' Only the 
fool hath said in his heart there is no God." We also 
read in the Book of Wisdom that: "All men are vain 
in whom there is not the knowledge of God, and who 
by these things that are seen could not understand 
Him that is, neither by attending the works have ac- 
knowledged Who was the Workman." 

But the crowning folly of the nineteenth century 
was the theory of the English scientist Darwin, who 
set at naught the whole biblical narration of the crea- 
tion and claimed that man, instead of being a noble 
creature made to the image and likeness of God, was 
actually a descendant of the ape. Even this absurd 
doctrine, so contrary to reason, and so opposed to the 
universal belief of all mankind for thousands of years, 
for a while found its adherents. But when men 
began to enquire for the ''missing link" between man 



122 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

and the brute creation, the theory of evolution dashed 
itself against a rock and was shattered into a thousand 
fragments, so that now only some poor benighted 
scholars still make profession of faith in it. 

Could anyone but an Englishman originate such 
an absurd doctrine as that ? If an Irishman were the 
author of it, he would be the laughing-stock of the 
world. But, thanks be to God! no Irishman was 
ever the inventor of such nonsense. In the realms 
of science therefore, we have reason to be proud of 
the glorious record of our race in comparison with 
that of the Anglo-Saxon. 



CHAPTER V. 

A Comparative Glance at Irish and English 
Literature. 

THERE is no better test of the superiority of one 
nation or race over another than its preemi- 
nence in literary culture. As the great Domin- 
ican, Father Lacordaire, has well said: ''Every re- 
markable man has been fond of literature." The 
same may be said of every remarkable nation. But 
no nation, either of ancient or modern times, has a 
more glorious record in the field of literature than 
poor, down-trodden Ireland. 

When we consider how often Ireland has been 
ravaged by fire and sword, first by the Danes and later 
by the English, could we be astonished if not a single 
trace of its literary productions had been left in the 
whole island? Yet at the present day there still re- 
main in the archives of Trinity College, Dublin, and 
of the Royal Irish Academy, a vast number of rare 
ancient Irish books and manuscripts, which are a 
most convincing proof of the hterary culture of their 
authors. As the Irish national poet, Thomas Moore, 
said in the year 1839, when inspecting these precious 
documents: "These huge tomes could not have been 
written by fools or for any foolish purpose." 

Several of these antique, literary works were trans- 
lated during the last century by the great Gaelic 
scholar, O 'Curry. It was indeed a task of no small 



124 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

labor and hardship; but what pained him most was 
to ascertain how many other invaluable Irish manu- 
scripts are lost forever. Their names alone remain 
to us preserved in the pages of those venerable books, 
which are still extant. What a pity that more of our 
clever young Irishmen and Irish-Americans do not 
turn their attention to this noble work, in order to 
demonstrate to the modern world how lofty was the 
genius of our ancestors! What a shame that when 
the Catholics of America want at the present day a 
Gaelic professor for their university, they have to 
engage a Welshman or a German, to expound to 
them the sublime literature of their forefathers! Our 
Irish and Irish- American youth have been trained up 
to admire the beauties of Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, 
Virgil, Plato, Cicero, and Demosthenes; but what do 
they know about the literature of their own ancestors, 
which is far more sublime than the greatest master- 
pieces of English literature or the choicest classics 
of Greece and Rome? 

Nearly seventeen centuries ago, that is more than 
a thousand years before Columbus discovered Amer- 
ica, two hundred years before St. Patrick landed in 
Ireland, and hkewise two centuries before England 
received its present name, Ireland was even then 
famous for her literary productions in prose and poetry. 
In this chapter we shall confine ourselves to her prose 
writings, reserving her poetical compositions to the 
succeeding chapter. 

In the year 250, A. D., the great Irish King, Cormac, 
wrote a celebrated book called: "Instructions for 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 125 

Princes," which is preserved even to this day. It 
contains the last injunctions of the Irish monarch to 
his son, who was the heir to his throne ; and the great 
Irish historian, Macgeoghegan, assures us that: 
'*It contains as goodly precepts and moral documents 
as Cato or Aristotle did ever write." But that was 
not the only literary work composed by King Comiac. 
He wrote, also, a history of Ireland from the first settle- 
ment of the country down to his own time; but un- 
fortunately that has perished in the course of ages. 
Does not this prove that even in the third century 
of the Christian era there must have been a consider- 
able amount of literary culture in Celtic Ireland? 

Where were our English cousins at that time? 
They had not yet set foot in Britain, nor for two 
hundred years afterwards. They were still only rude 
barbarians inhabiting the forests at the mouth of the 
Elbe River, between Germany and Denmark, though 
making frequent excursions to plunder their neighbors, 
an art which they have never forgotten since, and a 
science in which they have always excelled. It was 
only in the fifth century of the present era that they 
landed in Britain and it took them two hundred years 
more to produce a single literary man worthy of the 
name. Their first great author was the Venerable 
Bede, who flourished in the early part of the eighth 
century, about five hundred years after the great Irish 
writer, King Cormac. Bede was certainly a very 
learned man and he bequeathed to posterity a great 
many excellent educational works; but his English 
biographers very seldom mention that he received all 



126 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

his education from an English monk who had studied 
in Rome. When our modern EngUsh authors revile 
the monks of old how little they imagine that to them 
they are indebted, for their first great literary author! 

Nevertheless, it is a great mistake to consider Bede 
the father of English literature, because he wrote 
all his works in Latin, which was the language taught 
him by his monastic masters. After him England 
did not give birth to a single literary author worth 
mentioning for about one hundred and fifty years, tiU 
the rise of King Alfred in the ninth century. Even he, 
though a very worthy man, hardly deserves to be 
called an author; because all that he accompHshed 
in the field of literature was to translate into English 
some of the works of Bede and a few other great 
Latin writers. It was only in the fourteenth century 
that England begot her first real great Enghsh author, 
a man by the name of John Wickhffe, who has been 
styled the ''Father of Enghsh Prose"; though his 
chief claim to that title is based on the allegation that 
he was the first to translate the whole Bible into 
Enghsh. 

In the meantime, Ireland had brought her own 
Celtic hterature to a state of muturity even before Eng- 
lish literature had well begun. After the introduction 
of Christianity into the island, there grew up over the 
old Pagan hterature as a foundation a new species of 
Christian hterature, many specimens of which are 
still preserved in Trinity College and the Royal Irish 
Academy. Though many valuable books written by 
our Christian ancestors have perished, yet so many 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 127 

others still remain that it would be a tedious task 
merely to enumerate their names. However, there are 
three worthy of special mention — the Book of Armagh, 
the Book of Leinster, and the Book of Keils. From 
these we may form a fair estimate of the early Christian 
literature of Ireland. 

The first is called the Book of Armagh because, 
though it is at present in the custody of Trinity College, 
Dubhn, it belonged originally to the Cathedral Church 
of Armagh, which was founded by St. Patrick in the 
fifth century. In its present form it has come down 
to us from the ninth century; but it is evidently much 
more ancient than that, for it was then transcribed 
from a far older document. We can judge of its 
antiquity from the fact that it contains the life of St. 
Patrick, the original of which was written in Latin 
by his own hand, though it bears many annotations 
in Irish, ui the most ancient form of the language 
now to be found anywhere. Next comes an entire 
copy of the New Testament with all the Gospels and 
Epistles written in Latin, the language of the Church. 
But what is most remarkable, many of the Gospel 
headings are written in Greek characters. We can 
judge therefore, what was the literary culture of Irish 
scholars even at that early day, since they were versed 
not only in their own language but also in the classics 
of Greece and Rome. 

Next in importance after the Book of Armagh is the 
Book of Leinster, so-called because it was compiled 
in the twelfth century from early Irish documents by 
the Bishop of Kildare for the instruction of the young 



128 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Irish Prince of Leinster, Dermot McMurrough, who 
afterwards betrayed his country. Its contents are of 
an exceedingly varied and interesting character — 
heroic tales and poems, genealogies, lives of the saints, 
and various tracts used in the Irish monastic schools, 
dealing with both sacred and profane learning. 

But probably more interesting than either of these 
is the Book of Kells; though it is nothing more nor 
less than a copy of the New Testament written by the 
great Irish missionary, St. Columba, in the sixth 
centur)^ He founded a monastery near the City of 
Kells in the County of Meath, and after his death the 
monks preserved as a precious heirloom the New 
Testament which he bequeathed to them. Hence it 
is called the Book of Kells, though, like most other 
precious Irish documents, it has passed into the 
possession of Trinity College. 

But what is most remarkable about this famous 
book is its elaborate ornamentation and brilliant 
coloring, which has made it the wonder of the world. 
Indeed no tourist travelling to Ireland from a foreign 
land would consider his journey complete unless he 
saw with his own eyes the celebrated Book of Kells. 
It is said that no description can give an adequate 
idea of it. It must be seen and studied to be appre- 
ciated. 

Yet what has been said of the ornamentation of 
the Book of Kells is equally true of all the other an- 
cient Irish manuscripts. Nobody carried this literary 
ornamentation to such a high degree of perfection as 
the ancient Irish monks; which certainly speaks 



TB.E CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 129 

volumes for their indefatigable industry and their in- 
comparable artistic skill. A certain Welsh traveller 
by the name of Gerald Barry, who once went over to 
Ireland during the middle ages, tells us how astonished 
he was on beholding the brilHantly-illumined Gospel 
books of the monastic schools of Kildare. All the 
skill of the monks and of their pupils was exerted to 
adorn the Word of God in a manner befitting its sacred 
character. Hence, he speaks of one manuscript of 
the four gospels which was so exquisitely illuminated 
with various figures on every page that the people 
really believed it was the work of an angel. "And 
indeed," says this Welshman, ''the symboHcal figures 
of the Evangehsts were so wrought in every variety of 
coloring, with such subtiHty and grace, and all the 
other drawings and figures were likewise so delicate 
and subtile, that one would really think it was the 
work of angehc hands and not of mere human skill." 
What has England that can compare with the Book 
of Armagh, the Book of Leinster and the famous 
Book of Kells? Nothing whatever. For over a 
hundred years after Wickliffe, the "father of English 
prose," she produced only a lot of literary pigmies, 
whose very names have either perished or can be 
found only in the pages of the Encyclopaedia Britan- 
nica. It is true that the introduction of the art of 
printing into England by Caxton in the fifteenth 
century stimulated the spread of literature; yet of 
the forty-five books which he pubhshed forty-two were 
only translations from the French or Latin. Not a 
solitary literary genius made his appearance in Eng- 



I30 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

land until Thomas More, in 1516, wrote his famous 
" Utopia. ' ' Even that is not original ; for it is modelled 
on Plato's Atlantis. Besides, it was first written in 
the Latin language, though afterwards translated 
into Enghsh. 

The reign of Queen Elizabeth is called the "golden 
age of Enghsh literature" yet what Hterary lights 
did it produce? Only Spencer and Shakespeare. 
The plays of Shakespeare are certainly masterpieces 
that have stood the test of time and are in our theatres 
even at the present day received with great applause. 
Nevertheless, the composition of comedies and trag- 
edies is not by any means the highest form of hterary 
genius. Besides, it is now universally acknowledged 
that many of Shakespeare's dramas were not original. 
The plots and incidents of at least a dozen are taken 
from Itahan authors. This is especially true of 
Othello and Romeo and Juliet, which are founded on 
an Italian novel, though the gallant Enghshman has 
failed to give the author credit for it. In the field of 
Hterature, as in every other field the Enghsh have no 
scruple in appropriating other people's property. 
They seem to think that the whole world belongs to 
them. How Shakespeare acquired his knowledge of 
Italian hterature, as he never received much education 
in his youth, we can now only surmise. He may 
have learned the language from some ItaUans whom he 
afterwards met in London ; or perhaps his mother may 
have been an Italian and taught him her native tongue 
in his childhood. However, it is more likely that 
w^hatever knowledge of Italian literature he possessed 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 131 

he derived from the translations of Itahan authors 
which, as we have seen, were published by Caxton 
after the introduction of the printing-press into 
England. Not only did Shakespeare draw the mate- 
rial of his dramas from Italian but also from Irish 
sources. This is evident from his ghost scene in 
Hamlet; for it is well-known that the behef in fairies 
is not a characteristic of the English but a striking 
peculiarity of the Irish people. In his poetical works 
too, Shakespeare was likewise greatly influenced by 
the Itahan Poets, Tasso and Ariosto; but, as we are 
now concerned only with prose composition, we shall 
refer to that more extensively in the succeeding chapter. 
Nevertheless, even with all his assistance from 
foreign authors, Shakespeare's plays are a pitiful 
form of Uterature in comparison with the great Irish 
literary work that was pubHshed a few years after this, 
and is now widely quoted even by English authors. 
We refer to the famous history of Ireland called ''The 
Annals of the Four Masters." It is called the Annals 
of the Four Masters, because the four men who wrote 
it were so celebrated for their learning and erudition. 
The editor-in-chief was a Franciscan lay-brother called 
Michael O'Clery. He was assisted by his brother, 
Conary O'Clery, his cousin. Peregrine O'Clery, and 
Ferfeasa O'Mulconry. Though eminent in anti- 
quarian lore, it took them four years to complete this 
great historical work and no wonder, for it comprises 
seven large quarto volumes. It is dedicated to a 
noble-hea.rted Irish chieftain called Ferral O'Gara, 
who was the patron of this great literary undertaking 



132 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

and paid all the expenses of the enterprise. Some 
years afterwards it was translated into English by 
Dr. John O 'Donovan and is now recognized as a 
standard authority on all Irish historical subjects; 
as all its data are taken from original sources. There 
is no masterpiece of history' like this in native English 
literature. The nearest approach to it is Macaulay's 
* 'History of England"; but that is a work of only five 
volumes and extends over a period of only a couple 
of centuries; but the "Annals of the Four Masters" 
comprises the vast range of twenty-three hundred 
years, from 730 B. C, to 1616 A. D. 

This remarkable pubHcation was the last great 
literary production of the Irish in their native tongue. 
Henceforth the Irish language gradually ceased to be 
the medium of literature and since the reign of Queen 
EHzabeth the Irish people have been compelled, we 
regret to say, to express their ideas in English, the 
language of their conquerors. Everyone knows how 
difficult it is to communicate one's thoughts in a 
foreign tongue. We can readily realize, therefore, 
how difficult it must have been for our forefathers to 
compete with the English in their own native tongue. 
Yet those who are well versed in English hterature 
and have studied Enghsh rhyme of the sixteenth 
century know without a doubt that what people call 
at the present time the "Irish Brogue" is in reahty 
the correct pronunciation of English which prevailed 
three centuries ago. Since then the Enghsh them- 
selves have altered their pronunciation; but the Irish 
have preserved it in its original purity. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 133 

Moreover, the Irish have actually outstripped the 
English in their own language. They have added 
to English literature a certain warmth and animation, 
a certain richness of imagery, a certain power of 
imagination, and a wit and humor which the dull, 
cold, phlematic Anglo-Saxon has never possessed and 
can never hope to acquire. Some of the grandest 
masterpieces of EngHsh literature composed during 
the past three hundred years have been the work of 
Irishmen. 

As the reign of Queen EKzabeth has been called the 
golden age, so that of Queen Anne may be styled the 
diamond epoch of English literature. No similar 
period of English history can boast of so many brilliant 
literary geniuses, especially in prose composition, 
as flourished during that time. But of all that 
grand galaxy of intellectual Hghts the foremost 
prose writers were Addison, Steele, and Swift. In 
the history of EngHsh literature these three great 
luminaries are represented as EngHsh authors, but 
the fact is that only one, Mr. Addison, was an EngHsh- 
man; and the other two, though of EngHsh descent, 
were real native-born Irishmen. Not only were Steele 
and Swift Irish by birth, but they Hkewise received 
most of their early education in Ireland and their 
literature, though in the EngHsh language, is thorough- 
ly Hibernian in its characteristics. Indeed it was their 
vigorous Celtic style that made their writings so famous 
and gave them such a high place in EngHsh Hterature. 
The candid truth is that the two Irishmen outstripped 
the Englishman in bis own native tongue. As an 



134 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

essayist, with perhaps the single exception of Lord 
Macaulay, no other author holds such a lofty station 
in the estimation of Enghsh readers as Joseph Addison. 
But, when the mists of national prejudice will have 
passed away, Steele and Swift will hold a higher place 
in hterature than even the gifted Addison. 

In reality it was Steele that developed Addison into 
a literary author by inducing him to contribute articles 
to his newspapers, the Tatler, the Spectator, and the 
Guardian. Thus originated those charming essays 
of Addison which are read with so much pleasure and 
profit at the present day. 

Nevertheless, if we scrutinize closely these literary 
productions, we cannot fail observing that there is 
something essential lacking in each and every one of 
them. Critics judge literatxire by four marks — ex- 
cellence of matter, clearness, force, and polish. 
Three out of these four marks Addison's essays 
certainly possess. The subject matter is excellent, 
the thought is elevated, the style is clear and polished; 
but the fourth mark of literary genius, which is vigor 
of expression, is sadly wanting. Hence all of Addi- 
son's writings are dolefully lacking in the great power 
of conviction; because of a certain dullness and cold- 
ness characteristic of almost all Anglo-Saxon authors. 

On the other hand, the great Irish author, Dean 
Swift, was remarkably vigorous in style but sometimes 
lacking in polish. While Addison's essays may be 
compared to a smooth, but deep, gently-flowing river 
steadily, though imperceptibly, winding its course to 
the sea, Swift's writings were like a whirlwind which 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 135 

swept everything before it, or like the waters of the 
mighty Mississippi, rushing along with irresistible 
onset to the boundless ocean. Swift was certainly 
the most powerful writer that flourished during the 
reign of Queen Anne. Even the highest politicians 
and the greatest lords in all England dreaded his 
mighty pen. Never before was so clearly demon- 
strated the old proverb that ''The pen is mightier than 
the swotd." His famous work called ''GulUver's 
Travels" was certainly a marvel of genius, such as 
even the gifted Addison himself in his palmiest days 
could never write. Hence it was said that "Jonathan 
Swift was the Goliath among English writers in the 
reign of Queen Anne; and there arose no David who 
could slay him." 

Nevertheless, according to the canons of eminent 
literary critics, another Irishman, Richard Steele, 
holds a still higher place in literature than his con- 
temporary, the great Dean Swift; for Steele's works 
bear in their integrity the four marks of Hterary genius. 
His writings had the poHsh of Addison, the vigor of 
Swift; and besides, a certain vivacity and charm 
peculiar to himself, that is simply inimitable. 

Though he was himself a rather dissolute character, 
yet no other one man did more than Steele to elevate 
the standard of Enghsh literature and uplift English 
society from the degraded condition to which it had 
fallen at the opening of the eighteenth century. At 
the accession of Queen Anne to the throne, the state 
of society in England was truly deplorable. The long 
wars of King William III. had produced their inevi- 



136 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

table result. Corruption and immorality existed on 
all sides, coarseness and ferocity of manners pre- 
vailed among all classes, high and low. Gambling 
was exceedingly prevalent, and drunkenness was 
universally habitual. But intellectual pursuits w^ere 
either unknowTi or confined to a few, and these few 
regarded as pedants or humorists. Dr. Samuel 
Johnson, who was himself one of the great English 
prose writers of the eighteenth century, assures us 
that: "Then men were not ashamed of ignorance and 
among women any acquaintance with books was dis- 
tinguished only to be criticised." 

The first to combat the foUies of that coarse age — 
the first one who manfully labored to raise up the 
English nation from its brutal ignorance and grovelling 
condition was the Irish Richard Steele. To acccwn- 
plish that result he established the Tatler, a sort of 
penny newspaper, whose object was to expose the 
false arts of life ; to tear off the mask of EngHsh cun- 
ning, vanity, and ostentation; and to recommend 
simplicity in dress, discourse, and behavior. Before 
long there was observed a marked improvement in 
the manners of the people. Instead of debasing 
pleasures and debauchery they began to practice 
honesty and sobriety; instead of cunning and hypoc- 
risy they manifested a genuine spirit of kindness 
towards their neighbor; and henceforth they seemed 
to have much loftier ideas of duty and honor. 

Steele next started the Spectator, which has beccwne 
famous in British periodical literature. It is looked 
upon as an English classic; and Professor Morley 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 137 

telis US that: "It was through the Tatler and the 
Spectator that the people of England learned to read." 
Yet how frequently have not EngUsh writers almost 
up to the present day referred to Steele's countrymen 
as: "The low, ignorant Irish"! 

But there is no department of prose literature in 
which the genius of the Irish so completely ecHpses 
that of the Anglo-Saxon as in the field of oratory. 
Poor England has been very barren indeed in great 
orators. Even in our own day she can boast of several 
clever speakers such as DisraeH, Gladstone, and 
Chamberlain, but since the Saxons landed in Britain 
fifteen centuries ago she produced only one man who 
really deserves to be called an orator. That was the 
celebrated WilUam Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, and 
one of the seven great orators of the world. 

On the other hand, Ireland has four great orators 
to England's one, Burke, Sheridan, Grattan, and 
O'Connell were masters of eloquence such as the 
world had never heard before; and their names will 
live in history as long as the world exists. Edmond 
Burke was great not only as an orator but also as an 
essayist. His "Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful" 
stands in the front rank of EngUsh classics, and holds 
the same place in EngUsh prose that Shakespeare 
does in EngUsh verse . His ^ * Reflections on the French 
Revolution," Ukewise, has been pronounced the 
masterpiece of masterpieces. However, it is his 
wonderful oratorical productions that have given him 
such a prominent place in the book of fame and 
rendered his name immortal. 



138 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Burke's first great oratorical effort was in the im- 
peachment of Warren Hastings in the House of 
Commons. His speech, which lasted for nine days, 
was a masterpiece of oratory surpassing the grandest 
flights of eloquence by Cicero or Demosthenes of old 
and its effect was perfectly indescribable. Ladies 
sobbed and screamed, stern men felt the tears trickling 
down their cheeks, and Warren Hastings himself 
afterwards asserted that then he thought his hour 
of doom had come. What wonder that Lord 
Macaulay declared that Burke was ''the greatest 
master of eloquence, superior to every orator, an- 
cient or modem"! 

Indeed, it is very difficult to say which of these four 
Irish orators was the greatest. They are Hke the 
pyramids of ancient Egypt, with their massive propor- 
tions and lofty stature, or hke the pinnacles of a high 
mountain soaring aloft to the sky. When we gaze 
at one we consider that the loftiest, but, on looking 
at another, we instantly change our mind. So it is 
when we compare Burke and Sheridan. The first 
great speech of Sheridan, too, was in the impeach- 
ment of Warren Hastings. It occupied more than 
five hours in the deUvery; and Burke himself declared 
it to be "the most astonishing effort of eloquence, 
argument, and wit united of which there is any record 
or tradition." Even the great English orator, Pitt, 
himself acknowledged that it "surpassed all the elo- 
quence of ancient and modem times and possessed 
everything that genius or art could furnish to agitate 
or control the human mind." 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 139 

Not only was Sheridan a most eloquent orator, but 
also a very successful dramatic writer. His comedy 
called the "School for Scandal" has been pronounced 
by the highest critics the best in the EngKsh language. 
It created such a favorable impression at the first 
performance that it was translated into German 
and won the greatest applause in the cities along the 
Rhine and Danube. He was likewise the author of 
an opera called the "Duenna" which was then the 
best of its kind on the stage; and, by a strange coin- 
cidence, these productions were winning wild applause 
in the theatres of London the very night that the 
gifted author himself was delivering in the British 
ParHament the most eloquent harangue ever delivered 
within its walls. 

Yet, notwithstanding all his talent, it is a mooted 
question whether Sheridan was superior to that other 
great Irish orator, Henry Grattan, who by the irresist- 
ible power of a single speech secured triumphantly 
the independence of the Irish Parliam^ent and the 
Irish nation. His biographer assures us that it "was 
the most splendid piece of eloquence that had ever 
been heard in Ireland and it vies with the greatest 
efforts that had ever been made in the EngUsh House 
of Commons." An eye-witness who had heard that 
famous speech tells us the impression that it produced 
upon him. "It seemed," he says, "as if I were smitten 
through heart and brain with such a power of speech 
as was never heard before except from the great 
Demosthenes." 
At the conclusion of that marvellous oration men 



I40 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

shook hands with one another in an ecstasy of delight, 
threw up their caps high into the air, and thundered 
forth such cheers and applause as shook the very 
walls of Dubhn Castle to its foimdation. Dreading 
the effect on the pubhc mind, the English Government 
ignominiously surrendered and granted an independ- 
ent Parliament to Ireland. 

What wonder, therefore, that the famous Irish poet, 
Thomas Davis, says: "The speeches of Grattan are 
the finest specimens of imaginative eloquence in the 
EngHsh or in any language. His force and vehemence 
are amazing — far beyond Chatham, far beyond Fox, 
far beyond any orator we can recall!" Even the 
great English poet, Lord Byron, said that Grattan 
was — 

"With all that Demosthenes wanted endowed 
And his rival or master in all he possessed.'* 

Nevertheless, taking everything into consideration, 
we must conclude that the king of all Irish orators was 
the great Irish emancipator, Daniel O'Connell. In 
many respects he towered far above all the other Irish 
leaders before and since his time. In striking con- 
trast with the physical infirmity of Grattan, O'Connell 
was a man of herculean frame and commanding 
presence; the Hght of genius was in his eyes; and he 
had a voice of immense power, sweetness, and variety 
of tone. Even the EngHsh Premier, DisraeH, declared 
that he never heard any voice that could compare 
with the thrilling tones of O'Connell." Endowed, 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 141 

moreover with an extraordinary intellect, he seemed 
destined by nature to be a born-orator and a bom 
leader of men. It was only a man of such marvellous 
powers that could win for his people from a tyran- 
nical English Government the precious boon of 
Emancipation. 

What wonder that hjs grateful countrymen style 
him the "Liberator," the "Father of his Coimtry," 
and the ' * Uncrowned King of Ireland ' ' ! What wonder 
that the great Irish Dominican preacher, Father 
Burke, gave him the appellation of "Ireland's greatest 
son"! What wonder that he is recognized in history 
as one of the seven greatest orators that the world has 
ever seen! What has England to compare with the 
matchless genius of Daniel O'Connell? 

There is only one department of literature in which 
the English surpass the Irish. That is in the province 
of fiction. The English authors, Dickens and 
Thackery, are still the kings of modem novelists. 
Why the Irish have not been as successful in fiction 
as in other departments of Hterature it is difficult to 
determine, Tmless the reason is that fiction means 
falsehood, and the Irish love the truth too well to 
invent a falsehood even for the sake of afterwards 
drawing a moral from it. 

Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that 
"Gulliver's Travels," which was written by the Irish- 
man, Dean Swift, was the forerunner of our modem 
novel. It must be admitted, too, that to another 
Irishman, Oliver Goldsmith, belongs the great merit 
of purifying the novel and raising it above the sensual 



142 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

and obscene. He was also the author of "The Vicar 
of Wakefield," one of the very best novels in the Eng- 
lish language. But the greatest of all the Irish 
novelists was Gerald Grifl&n, the author of "The 
Collegians," and "The Rivals," which are master- 
pieces in the field of fiction and hold the very first rank 
among novels even to the present day. 

In more recent times, hkewise, our Irish and Irish- 
American writers have produced some very creditable 
novels. "When We Were Boys," composed by 
William O'Brien, M. P., would be indeed an excellent 
description of Irish life thirty years ago, did it not con- 
tain a certain absurd and inexpHcable hostility to the 
clergy of Ireland, who are stigmatized unjustly as the 
opponents of every national movement for the freedom 
of their native land. Yet it is a historical fact that it 
was an Irish priest, Father Murphy, that led on his 
countrymen against the veteran troops of England 
at the Battle of Vinegar Hill, in 1798; and the Irish 
priests have always seconded every Irish organization 
in which they could see any hope of Irish inde- 
pendence; though of course they, hke good shepherds, 
they sometimes warned their flocks against certain ill- 
planned and ill-advised attempts at insurrection 
which they foresaw only too clearly would end in 
disaster. 

Another great Irish author, who has lately won re- 
nown as a novelist, is the well-known Irish priest. 
Father Sheehan. His beautiful novel, "My New 
Curate," is certainly a gem that has aheady secured 
a very high place in Hterature and will always be read 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 143 

with pleasure not only by the clergy but also by the 
laity. But probably no Catholic novel that has ever 
been written surpasses ''Lalor's Maples," which has 
recently been written by that talented lady who is the 
Assistant Editor of the Boston Pilot, Miss Catharine 
. Conway. It was certainly a much-needed book and 
ought to do an untold amount of good among Irish- 
American CathoUcs. 

Nevertheless, when we compare the novels of Irish 
and English authors, we see at a glance that fiction is 
not at all the proper sphere of the Celtic race. The 
principal part of a novel consists in weaving a clever 
plot; but at that the Irish have never been very success- 
ful. They are too honest and straightforward to plot. 
That is why the novel of an Irish author is as tame as 
a Sunday-School story in comparison with the thrilling 
plot of an English novelist. It requires an Anglo- 
Saxon to invent a plausible story or to concoct a skilful 
plot. At that our English cousins are perfectly as 
home. This explains why they are clever novelists. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Celtic and Saxon Music and Poetry. 

IN all the vast realms of science and art therfe is ne 
more beautiful accomplishment than proficiency 
in music and poetry. There is no better test 
of true genius, no surer mark of a lofty state of civiliza- 
tion. 

The Irish have always been an exceedingly musica 
people. The Celtic harp is the most ancient form of 
musical instrument now in existence; and we can 
judge of its perfection from the fact that after the 
lapse of centuries it still sur\dves to the present day, 
just like 

"The harp that once through Tara's Halls 
The soul of music shed." 

How strange that our English cousins have no musical 
instrument that has been handed down to them by 
their ancestors! Is not this a clear indication that 
the musical talent of the early Anglo-Saxons was far 
inferior to that of our Irish forefathers? 

It is true, indeed, that neither Ireland nor England 
can boast of any great musical composers like those 
of Germany, Italy, or Austria. Germany has her 
Beethoven, Wagner, and Mendelssohn; Italy her 
Verdi and Paganini, Austria her Mozart and Haydn. 
These are the names of the immortal geniuses that we 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 145 

naturally think of when we speak of musical com- 
posers; and we seek in vain for their compeers in the 
British Isles. Poor Ireland has some excuse for not 
producing musical geniuses like these; for what in- 
spiration did Erin have to expand her musical soul 
during the last seven centuries of English tyranny 
and oppression? As the Hebrew exiles hung their 
harps on the willows of Babylon, saying: "We cannot 
sing in a strange land," so the children of Erin could 
not be expected to produce grand soul-stirring musical 
compositions in chains and slavery. But England 
has no such excuse; and yet she has never given birth 
to a musical composer who has acquired even a 
national, not to speak at all of a world-wide 
reputation. 

However, in the field of poetry neither England nor 
any other country in the world can compare with 
Ireland. As the late lamented Abbe Hogan, President 
of our Boston Ecclesiastical Seminary, was accus- 
tomed to say: *' Every Irishman is a poet; for he has 
that lofty flight of the i'magination which constitutes 
the first essential of the true poet." Indeed, history 
confirms this; for in no other country on the face of 
the earth was the art of poetry so cultivated as in 
ancient Ireland. There alone it was reduced to a 
science and looked upon as one of the learned pro- 
fessions. 

Who has not heard of the ancient bards or poets of 
Ireland? Whole volumes have been written about 
them. Their poetical compositions were not like the 
hap-hazard doggerels WTitten by certain individuals, 



146 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

who imagine that they are poets at the presert day; 
the bards had to study the art of poetry for twelve 
long years before they were permitted to afflict the 
pubHc with their poetic strains. 

What wonder that there were great poets in Ireland 
in these daysl In spite of aU the ravages of the Danes 
and the English, certain very ancient specimens of 
their poetry have come down to us through the mists 
of ages and give us some idea of the poetic fire which 
burned in the hearts of our ancestors twenty-three 
centuries ago. We may talk of the beauties of the 
great Greek and Latin poets — Homer, Euripides, 
Virgil, and Horace; but how many Irish or Irish- 
Americans ever heard of the great Homer of Ireland ? 
His very name will sound strange and unfamiliar 
to them. 

The greatest of all of Ireland's ancient poets was 
the celebrated Ossian who flourished about the third 
century of the Christian era, nearly two hundred years 
before St. Patrick landed in Ireland. A few frag- 
ments of his poems are stiU preserved in Trinity 
College, Dublin; but even these are sufficient to put 
him on a par with the author of the Iliad and the 
Odyssey; for in point of grandeur and flowers of 
rhetoric they excel almost everything that has come 
down to us from these early ages. Like the English 
poet, Milton, this great Irish bard became blind in his 
old age; and in the following beautiful apostrophe to 
the sun sadly laments his loss of sight. Though the 
translation is but a faint echo of the original, it will 
give us some idea of his poetic genius: 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 147 

"Oh, thou that revolvest above, circular as the 
shield of my fathers! Whence are thy beams Oh, 
Sun, thou everlasting light? Thou comest forth in 
thine awful beauty and the stars hide themselves in 
the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western 
wave, but thou, thyself, movest alone. Who can be 
the companion of thy course ? The oaks of the moun- 
tains fall, the mountains themselves decay with years, 
the ocean shrinks and grows again; the moon itself is 
lost in heaven; but thou art forever the same, rejoicing 
in the brightness of thy course. When the world is 
dark with tempest, wheh thunder rolls and lightning 
flies, thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds and 
laughest at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest 
in vain — for he beholds thy beams no more — whether 
thy yellow hairs flow on the eastern clouds, or thou 
tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art, per- 
haps, Kke me for a season, and thy years will have an 
end. Thou shalt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the 
voice of the morning. Exult then, O Sun, in the 
strength of thy youth. Age is dark and unlovely. It 
is like the glimmering of the moon when it shines 
through broken clouds, and the mist is on the hills; 
the blast of the north is on the plain; the traveller 
sinks in the midst of his journey." 

What has England to compare with this great an- 
cient Irish bard? Absolutely nothing. The En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica sadly informs us that before 
the introduction of Christianity, " literature either had 
no existence or was in a state not less elementary, con- 
sisting of a few songs and oracles, and nothing more." 



X48 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

It is indeed a great relief to turn from the barren 
Anglo-Saxon desert to the rich and fertile fields of 
Irish poetry. Not only has Ireland had her Homer 
but her Virgil also. Just before the conversion of 
Erin by St. Patrick, a certain enterprising Irishman 
by the name of Shiel travelled to Italy to study philos- 
ophy and poetry. There his name was latinized into 
Sedulius and he afterwards became such a celebrated 
poet that he is called to this day the Christian Virgil* 
because he m^odelled his poetry on the heroic metre 
of that great Latin poet. His principal work was the 
Carmen Paschale, which is a sort of poetical version 
of the Old and New Testament, written in all the 
grace and elegance of diction of which only Virgil 
himself was thought capable. 

There is only one thing to be regretted, it is that 
Sedulius did not write his poetic works in his native 
Irish tongue instead of Latin. However, perhaps it 
may be all the better in the end, for it is this which has 
made the name of Sedulius immortal, because the 
Catholic Church has incorporated a part of his poetical 
writings in her liturgy, so that his fame will Hve as 
long as the Church will last; and that is forever. The 
Latin hymn ^'Crudelis Herodes Deum,''^ which we sing 
at Vespers on the great feast of the Epiphany is taken 
from the poems of Sedulius; so likewise the Introit 
of the Mass of the Blessed Virgin — ^^ Salve Sancta 
Parens y 

Yet it was the great Saint Patrick him. self that 
transformed the whole system of ancient Irish poetry 
and changed it from a pagan into a CJiristian institu- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 149 

tion. Before the coming of our national apostle the 
office of the Irish bard was to sing the praises of his 
ancestors and to chant the heroic deeds of Irish chief- 
tains on the field of battle. St. Patrick, however, was 
no meddlesome or revolutionary reformer. Whatever 
was good in Irish civilization he retained and con- 
secrated to the service of God. So he allowed the 
Bards to retain their harps and sing the songs of Erin's 
heroic youth as in the days of old. But the great 
Saint taught them to tune their harps to loftier strains 
than those of the royal banquet-hall or the battle-field. 
He sought to banish from their songs the pagan spirit 
of undying hate and rancorous vengeance, to impress 
the poet's mind with something of the divine spirit 
of Christian charity, and to soften the fierce melody 
of his war-songs with cadences of pity for a fallen foe. 
He taught the sons of the Bards how to chant the 
psalms of David and to sing together the sweet music 
of the Church's hymns. 

St. Patrick was quick to see how passionately fond 
of music our ancestors were. Hence, like a wise 
apostle, he prudently employed the grand musical 
strains of the Church to attract converts to the true 
faith. Everywhere that he established a church he 
made provision to have some of the congregation 
trained in psalmody. Accordingly, in the biography 
of our national saint we read that "his choir-master 
was Benignus, whose duty it was to organize the choir 
and conduct the musical service." 

Instead, therefore, of hampering the talents of our 
forefathers and checking their progress, Christianity 



ISO THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

rather ennobled all their powers and developed them 
to their fullest extent. Accordingly, soon after the 
time of St. Patrick, Erin gave birth to a most remark- 
able man who was one of the best specimens of the 
scholar, the saint, and the poet that the world has ever 
seen. 

This was the great Irish missionary, St. Coliunba, 
or Columbkille, who was born in the county of Donegal, 
on December 7, A. D. 521. This celebrated man 
wrote verses not only in his own native tongue but 
also in the Latin language. Thirty-six of his Gaelic 
poems are still preserved in Oxford University and 
they are certainly masterpieces. To be fully appre- 
ciated they must be read in the original; they lose all 
their beauty when translated into the cold Anglo- 
Saxon tongue. The great French writer, Montalem-. 
bert, tells us that after St. Columbkille, Ireland pro- 
duced two hundred other celebrated poets whose 
works have long since perished ; but we must now once 
more turn our attention to England and see what 
poetical works she produced after her conversion to 
Christianity. 

England was converted to the Catholic faith in the 
year 597, A. D. Thus she received all that was grand 
noble, and sublime; everything in brief which would 
cause a generous heart to burst forth in poetic strains 
of gratitude to God for all His inestimable blessings. 
But it seems that the mustard seed of Christianity 
brought into England fell upon very barren soil; for 
it took her over a hundred years to produce even a 
single Christian poet. The first English Christian 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 151 

poet was a man called Caedmon who is supposed to 
have lived during the seventh century. His poetical 
works consisted of a mere paraphrase of the Pente- 
teuch and the New Testament. Another early Eng- 
lish poet was Cynewulf who composed a poem caUed 
Crist, narrating the blessings and benefits of Christian- 
ity. Some authors claim that he lived during the 
eighth, others in the eleventh century; but it does 
not matter much as the names of both poets have 
long since sunk into oblivion. 

But the real father of English poetry was not born 
for nearly eight centuries after the conversion of 
England to the Christian religion. This was the 
famous Geoffrey Chaucer, who was born in London 
in the fourteenth century. Until his time EngHsh 
was looked upon as a rough and barbarous dialect; 
but by imitating the Hterary masterpieces of ItaHan 
and French authors, such as Dante, Petrarch, 
Boccaccio, and Lorris, he so poHshed his native tongue 
that it was henceforth considered one of the refined 
languages of Europe. His chief poetic work which has 
survived to the present day is entitled "The Canter- 
bmry Tales"; but, like a true EngHshman, he never 
gives any credit to the authors from whom he borrowed 
much of his literary material and style. 

After the death of Chaucer, not another English 
poet of any consequence appeared for over two hun- 
dred years, until the rise of Shakespeare in the six- 
teenth century. He is called England's national poet 
and is lauded as one of the three greatest poets the 
world has ever seen, on a par with Homer and Virgil; 



152 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

but his title to that dignity rests certainly on very 
dubious credentials. He had no great reputation as 
a poet in his own day; nor did his poetic works excite 
much admiration. Even a century later, during the 
reign of Queen Anne, Shakespeare's poems were en- 
tirely ignored and Pope was considered England's 
national poet. 

However, the fact that Pope was a Cathohc was a 
most serious obstacle to his permanent retention of 
that honor. The English nation that would not 
tolerate even a Catholic king on the throne was not 
likely to retain very long a Catholic as her national 
poet. Accordingly, poor Pope was soon deposed 
from his lofty pedestal and during the last century 
a great wave of enthusiasm has swept over England 
in favor of Shakespeare, so that he has become a much 
overrated poet. He has bequeathed to us only sevea 
short poems of questionable merit. Only two of 
them, " The Rape of Lucrece " and " Venus and 
Adonis " are ever referred to as exhibiting any poetic 
genius above the ordinary. But even they are far from 
the sublime; for, while the melody is certainly beauti- 
ful, the poems themselves are very sensuous. Worse, 
still, all of Shakespeare's poetic works are lacking in 
originality ; for his warmest admirers are obliged to 
acknowledge that he borrowed much from the Italian 
poets Tasso and Ariosto. 

Instead of being called England's national poet, he 
should rather be styled her national playwright. His 
plays are five times more numerous than his poems. 
In a book edited by William Clark containing all of 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 153 

Shakespeare's works, a thousand pages are devoted 
to his plays and only fifty four to his poetry. In 
reality, it is Shakespeare's plays and not his poems 
that have made his name so famous. It is true there 
is a great deal of latent poetry in his comedies and 
tragedies; but the real secret of his popularity with 
the English people and their descendants Hes in his 
glorification of the English nation in all his dramas 
from "King Henry IV." to "King Henry VIII." A 
Httle flattery exercises great influence not only over 
individuals but even nations; and nobody knew the 
art better than Shakespeare ; but when another English 
poet will arise who is more adroit at adulation, then 
the tide of popular favor will recede from poor Shake- 
speare; and he will be left stranded high and dry upon 
the rocks. In future ages, when the mists of national 
prejudice will have melted away, he may not even be 
recognized as a first-class poet, having sunk back into 
the obscurity which enveloped him in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries. 

There were several other EngUsh poets as great as 
and perhaps greater than Shakespeare ever was. 
Though Milton usually wrote in blank verse and bor- 
rowed much from Dante, his "Paradise Lost" is far 
more majestic and sublime than anything Shakespeare 
ever composed. So likewise there is nothing in all 
Shakespeare's writings that can compare with Byron's 
magnificent poem, "Childe Harold," or Tennyson's 
sublime production, "The Holy Grail." But for 
loftiness of thought and exquisite beauty the very best 
poem of Shakespeare becomes mere dross in com- 



154 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

parison with Wordsworth's noble "Ode on the Inti- 
mations of Immortahty," which some people believe 
to be inspired like Holy Scripture itself. 

With such a gallant array of EngHsh poets we should 
imagine that poor, oppressed Ireland would have 
nothing to compare. Her last great poet who sang 
in his native tongue was St. Columbkille, who died 
just at the dawn of the seventh century. Soon after- 
wards, during the eighth century, the Danes began to> 
make their plundering incursions into Ireland and 
then the Irish poet had to cast aside his harp to fight 
the battles of his country. 

"The minstrel boy to the war has gone, 
In the ranks of death you'll find him." 

Scarcely had Erin recovered from the depredations 
of the Danes when she was compelled to defend her 
very Hfe against another enemy, the Anglo-Saxons 
and the Normans. After a gallant struggle of five 
hundred years, she was finally overpowered by brute 
force and reduced to a state of slavery. In such cir- 
cumstances who could expect her to pay much atten- 
tion to poetry and the fine arts ? 

"Thy songs were made for the pure and free 
They shall never sound in slavery." 

Not only did Ireland lose her independence but 
even her native tongue; and she was compelled hence- 
forth to express her thoughts in the language of her 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 155 

conqueror. When we consider how extremely diffi- 
cult it is to master a strange tongue, and especially 
one which we have good reason to dislike, who would 
imagine that generous, warm-hearted Erin would ever 
burst forth into song in cold, chilly Anglo-Saxon? 

Yet,wonderful to say, such is the marvellous versatil- 
ity of the Irish that they have actually conquered their 
conquerors in their own chosen field, not only of 
English prose but of English poetry also; for the very 
grandest poems in the EngUsh language have been 
composed by Irishmen. Ireland has given birth to 
four great writers of En-gHsh poetry who far surpass 
any native-bom Enghsh poet that ever hved. What 
has England to compare with Oliver Goldsmith, 
Gerald Griffin, Thomas Davis, and Thomas Moore? 
One of the dearest and brightest names in English 
literature is OHver Goldsmith, who was born in the 
County of Longford, in the year 1728. As an author 
he stands in the very first rank of English poets.. 
But of all his poetic gems the finest, most poUshed and 
most precious is ''The Deserted Village." For 
tender pathos, simple, charming, hfe-hke description,, 
exquisite harmony, and matchless beauty of expression,, 
it is a poem perhaps unequalled in the whole range 
of Hterature. It will last as long as the English 
language exists and the name of its author will be 
forever immortal. As Doctor Johnson said of him 
in his epitaph: "He left scarcely any style of writing 
untouched and he touched nothing that he did not 
adorn." 

Almost equally famous as a poet was Gerald Griffin, 



156 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

who was born in the city of Limerick on December 
12, 1803. His poetry glows with all the fire and 
feeling of youth and is noted for its pure beauty, 
freshness, and originality. His poems entitled "The 
Queen of May" and "The Sister of Charity" are 
among the very finest productions in the English 
language. 

But a name dearer to the Irish heart than either 
of these is that of Thomas Davis, the great Irish 
patriot poet who was bom in Cork, in 1814. By his 
thrilHng patriotic songs he is said to have contributed 
almost as much to bring about Catholic Emancipation 
as the great Daniel O'Connell himself. It was his 
jsoul-stirring poetry that created, inspired, and moulded 
the great national movement which rallied all the 
people around the great Uberator of our countrymen 
and made him simply irresistible. Hence the poems 
•of Davis will be read and admired as long as there is 
a man of the Irish race aUve. They were the expres- 
sion of his own manly nature, warm heart, and lofty 
character. They came from the heart and found 
their way to the heart; for they have the true ring 
which finds an echo in every soul that can admire the 
brave and the beautiful. What Irish heart does not 
throb in imison with his immortal verses: "She is a 
rich and rare land," "A nation once again," "The 
Green above the Red," and "On Fontenoy," which 
is recited by every school-boy, wherever the English 
tongue is spoken? 

Yet, Ireland has another poet even greater than 
Davis, the immortal Thomas Moore, who was born 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 157 

in Dublin, on May 28, 1779. He has been deservedly 
styled "the national poet of Ireland," "the poet of 
all circles," and the "sweet son of song;" for it is safe 
to say that no other country on the face of the earth 
ever produced a poet as great as Thomas Moore; and 
England's most eminent poets are only second class 
in comparison with him. This is the opinion not only 
of Irishmen but even of impartial EngHshmen and 
Scotchmen. An Enghsh writer by the name of Shaw, 
declares that: "In the quaUty of a national Irish lyrist, 
Moore stands absolutely alone and unapproachable," 
and Professor Wilson of Scotland says: "Of all the 
song-writers that ever warbled, or chanted, or sung , 
the best is verily none other than Thomas 
Moore." 

Moore's "Irish Melodies" are the grandest poetical 
productions that have ever been composed in any 
language. That man must indeed be a soulless clod 
of earth who can read them or hear them sung without 
feehng himself aroused to admiration. The words 
are exquisitely beautiful, the calm sweetness of the 
melody touches the very depths of the soul, and when 
played, the music strikes the ear as something almost 
celestial; so that the listener may imagine himself 
transported amidst the choirs of angels in Paradise. 

The poems of Pope, who was really England's 
greatest poet and was once recognized as such, are 
only rhymed eloquence and logic, but Moore's mel- 
odies are the genuine poetry. As oiu: late Irish- 
American poet, John Boyle O'Reilly, has well 
said: 



158 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

''He may use deduction who must preach; 
He may praise instruction who must teach; 
But the poet duly does his part 
When the song flows truly from his heart." 

It is thus that poetry flowed from the heart of Thomas 
Moore like the sweet notes of the nightingale. 

Well, therefore, may we be proud of the glorious 
record of our race in war and peace, in art, science, 
literature, music and poetry. Yet a few years ago 
certain weak-kneed Irish and Irish-Americans were 
actually ashamed of their Celtic origin and language. 
This was during the dark days of civil dissensions 
within the Irish Parliamentary party. But since 
then there has been a great improvement and a grand 
revival of the ancient Irish tongue. Now the Gaelic 
language is taught not only in the national schools of 
Ireland but even in Harvard College and the Catholic 
University of America. 

This is certainly a most gratifying movement in 
the right direction. Yet I am not one of those who 
advocate the complete elimination of English from 
the course of study of our Irish youth and the substi- 
tution of Irish in its place. In the present state of 
affairs such a step would be neither wise nor practical. 
To abohsh the study of EngHsh now would be to 
throw away the key to the matchless poems of Oliver 
Goldsmith, Gerald Griffin, Thomas Davis, and 
Thomas Moore. Why should we do anything as 
foolish as that? Besides we know how useful Eng- 
lish is at the present day as a means of communication 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 159 

in the business world. Why then should not the Irish 
take advantage of the opportunity it affords them in 
the field of trade and commerce? But, above all, 
I really believe that God has destined the Irish for 
the great work of keeping the light of faith burning 
brightly everywhere throughout the EngHsh-speaking 
world. Hence to neglect the study of EngUsh would 
be to prove unfaithful to this grand vocation. 

Let us therefore train up the rising generation to 
love and cherish the noble language of their fore- 
fathers ; but at the same time let them not neglect the 
EngHsh tongue which has been hallowed and ennobled 
by the immortal Thomas Moore. Thus they will be- 
come bihnguists like the Germans and the French, 
who settle in the United States and teach their children 
not only the language of the country but also the 
language of their fathers. It would also be an ex- 
cellent undertaking for Irishmen everywhere through- 
out the world to establish Irish Reading Circles, 
Historical Societies, and Archaeological Associations, 
in order to preserve as an inestimable treasure the 
glorious literature that has come down to us from our 
ancestors and to hand it down to posterity as a 
precious heirloom. 



PART in. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Characteristics of the Celt and the 

Saxon. 

HAVING compared the Celt and the Anglo- 
Saxon in war and peace, we must now en- 
deavor to draw a comparative sketch of Irish 
and EngHsh character. After all, it is not so much 
the achievements of a nation in war and peace as the 
lofty character of its citizens that determines its 
superiority. That is the real test . 

Though all men are descended from a comm.on 
father and mother, Adam and Eve, yet, in the course 
of ages, all the various nations of the world have 
developed certain characteristics pecuHar to them- 
selves. But though the Enghsh and the Irish have 
for so many centuries lived so closely together, it 
would be almost impossible to find two other races 
that differ so widely in character. 

It seems very difficult indeed for an Irishman and 
an Englishman to understand each other and for one 
to do justice to the character of the other; yet even the 
most impartial observers can see at a glance that there 
is in the Irish character something far more grand, 
noble, and elevated than in that of the Anglo-Saxon. 
Though their enemies frequently depict them as a 
low, ignorant, intemperate, and envious race, yet even 
impartial Englishmen themselves acknowledge that 
the Irish are the brightest, the wittiest, the most 



i6* THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

generous, the most warm-hearted, the most morale 
and the most magnanimous people on the face of the 
earth. 

The first striking characteristic which an Enghsh- 
man usually observes in an Irishman is his bright 
Celtic wit; and yet the average Englishman has only 
a very poor idea of what real, genuine Irish wit is. 
He would reduce the Irish wit to the level of the jester 
or clown, with his fool's cap and bells, whose business 
it was to amuse kings and nobles during the middle 
ages by his ludicrous and absurd remarks. Such is 
the Irishman as he is usually presented on the English 
stage and sometimes on the American in imitation of 
the EngUsh. His wit never rises beyond that ridicu- 
lous creation of the English imagination which is 
usually called an ''Irish Bull," generally something 
exceedingly foolish and nonsensical. But real genuine 
Irish wit is something far more clever and intelligent 
than this fantastical Anglo-Saxon burlesque; and it 
is high time that this travesty upon our race should be 
hissed from the stage. 

No doubt it must be very difficult for an English- 
man to get a true conception of Irish wit, for the Eng- 
lish are universally recognized as a dull, cold, cal- 
culating, and unscrupulous race, whose only aim 
in life is to seize upon their neighbor's property and 
thus amass riches. Though it cannot be denied that 
the Irish are a somewhat proud, sensitive, impulsive, 
and improvident race, yet with all their faults, who 
would exchange his Irish character for that of an 
Englishman ? 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON C65 

How can we explain these divergent characteristics 
csf the two races ? It is a nation's history that furnishes 
us with a key to its national character. Just as a 
man's daily actions, whether good or bad, make a 
corresponding impression on his character, so very 
frequently certain events in the history of a nation 
stamp upon it that indellible national character which 
distinguishes it from all other nations. Without a 
knowledge of these historical events the character of 
the people in the nation would be perfectly unin- 
telligible. So it is with the character of the Irish and 
the English. 

Nothing is so apt to ennoble the character of a race 
as a constant striving after some great and lofty 
principle. It is thus that the character of the Irish, 
naturally good, has been rendered still more noble 
by two great animating principles, the one religious, 
the other national in its aim. As we shall observe 
still more clearly in the following chapter, the eminent 
character of the Irish is mainly due to their fidelity 
to the Catholic religion. The morality of the gospel 
is the grandest and most sublime that the world has 
ever seen. He who is faithful to it must not only 
govern his actions but also his words and even his 
very thoughts. He must love even his greatest 
enemies. We can readily understand, therefore, what 
an influence such a religion must have over a race 
naturally so magnanimous as the Irish. A striking 
example of this was afforded at the siege of Limerick 
by Eang William of Orange. It deserves to be written 
Ml letters of gold. Once during the siege the English 



i66 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

camp caught fire, and the wounded in the hospitals 
were in danger of perishing in the flames; but the 
Irish, forgetting for a time the strife of conflict, rushed 
into the burning building and rescued their enemies 
from a most frightful death. If our forefathers were 
a vindictive, unforgiving race they would never 
have acted thus; but where is the EngHshman who 
would have treated his fallen Irish foe so magnan- 
imously ? 

Another great principle which contributed much to 
elevate the character of the Irish race was their in- 
cessant struggle for Hberty during the last seven 
centuries. Nothing is more apt to develop true 
patriotism, unselfishness, and sense of honor than a 
grand struggle for national independence. It was this 
which produced such grand characters as Emmett, 
Grattan, Daniel O'Connell, and hundreds of other 
noble Irish patriots who suffered, bled, and died for 
their country. 

Strange to say, this, too, explains the defects in the 
character of the Irish, such as their intemperance, 
which the EngHsh are so fond of putting under a 
magnifying glass and examining under the glare of 
a hme Hght, so that it may appear as hideous as pos- 
sible ; while at the same time hiding their own skeleton 
in the closet. 

But how many Englishmen ever reflect that England 
herself is responsible for this intemperance of the 
Irish? Our Celtic ancestors were a very temperate 
people before the EngHsh landed on their shores. 
In the time of St. Patrick drunkenness was unknown 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 167 

amongst them. In all his writings the great apostle 
does not refer even once to Irish intemperance. 

It was only after they lost their independence that 
this vice broke out among the Irish people; and when 
we take into consideration all that they suffered from 
English tyranny during the last seven hundred years ^ 
can we be astonished that they turned to drink? 
Everyone who knows human nature is aware how 
prone men, and even Englishmen are to drown their 
sorrows in the wine cup. So, when we consider that 
England has not only stolen their country's independ- 
ence, but even robbed them again and again of all 
that they possessed; when we reflect that she has 
banished their bravest and best into exile in a foreign 
land, and that she has broken the heart of many a 
a father and mother by casting their noble son into 
prison or causing him to die a shameful death upon 
the scaffold for no other crime than that of loving his 
country, is it any wonder that the Irish in despondency 
have contracted the habit of intoxication ? A less 
noble and courageous race would have sought reHef 
from all their troubles in the suicide's grave. Yet, 
to the honor of Ireland, her rate of suicides is only 
one fourth that of England, for an equal number of 
people. 

History has likewise left its deep impress upon the 
character of the Anglo-Saxon; and without the Hght 
of English history it w^ould be utterly impossible to 
understand the English character. To give the Eng- 
lish their due, it cannot be denied that they are an 
intelligent, enterprising, energetic, and thrifty race. 



s68 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

England has produced many noble-minded men and 
women who were a credit to their country and several 
of them have been canonized by the Catholic Church 
as men of unblemished character and saints of God. 
It would be very difficult indeed to point out in the 
pages of history a grander character than Sir Thomas 
More, Bishop Fisher, and the late Cardinal 
Newman. 

But these were only individuals. We are now deal- 
ing only with the English national character and we 
have seen already how the EngHsh were a nation of 
robbers from the earHest times. So, we regret to say, 
they have retained all the characteristics of the robber 
even to the present day. We sometimes find a snob- 
bish American aping the characteristics of the English; 
but how Uttle they realize that by acting thus they are 
only copying the traits of a robber, who has not even 
yet reformed from his misdeeds! 

Even the robber has many remarkable character- 
istics which ehcit, if not our admiration, at least our 
amazement. The robber is bold and courageous; 
for a faint-hearted man would never be able to over- 
power his victim and plunder him of all his posses- 
sions. The robber is also cool and calculating; for 
a hot-headed, excitable man would never make a 
successful plunderer. The burglar must also be en- 
terprising, vigilant, and wide-awake to observe his 
neighbor's property and to watch night and day for 
the best opportunity to seize upon it. But above all 
things the plunderer must possess in an extraordinary 
degree the faculty of cunning, to enable him to lay 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON x6g 

his plans successfully and to cover up the tracks of 
his plundering enterprises. 

But are not all these characteristics strikingly Eng- 
lish, you know? No one can deny that the English 
are bold and courageous, especially before the weak 
and powerless, though very civil and courteous to the 
strong and powerful. Even EngHsh writers them- 
selves confess this. The great Enghsh writer 
Thackeray, in his Irish Sketch Book, Chapters IX 
and X, tells us of a certain EngHsh bully who went 
over to Ireland in his own day and tried to bulldoze 
the natives, so that ' his conduct became disgusting 
even to his country-men. On the other hand he 
highly praises the Irishman as a true gentleman; 
and his only wonder is that he could have so much 
patience and forbearance with the rude, vulgar, 
insolent, English braggart. 

In his Paris Sketch Book, page lo, Thackeray 
develops still more fully the character of the "English 
gentleman." " Beheve me," he says, " there is not on 
the face of the earth a scamp like an Enghsh one, no 
blackguard Hke one of these half-gentlemen, so mean, 
so low, so vulgar — so ludicrously ignorant and con- 
ceited, so desperately heartless and depraved." If 
an Irishman under the British flag had painted the 
English character half as dark as that he would be 
sent into exile for life. 

In bright contrast to this sombre picture, the same 
author relates how hospitably himself, though a per- 
fect stranger and an Englishman, was received in 
Ireland, so that a Dublin lawyer left his office and a 



I70 . THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

literary man his books in order to show him the city; 
and he exclaims in astonishment: "Would a London 
man leave his business to trudge to the Tower or to 
the Park with a stranger?" 

Another boasted characteristic of the EngHsh is 
their proverbial coolness. They are wonderfully cool- 
headed indeed in all their spoliations. It is high time 
that they should be after fifteen centuries of freeboot- 
ing on land and sea. Their latest exhibition of cool- 
ness was displayed in robbing the poor Boer farmers 
of their diamond fields and their country. That was 
the most remarkable specimen of coolness recorded 
in history since Achab and Jezabel conspired to rob 
Naboth of his vineyard and inheritance. No doubt 
there were in England a great many upright, honest 
men who disapproved of this thievery, but their voice 
was lost in the national din of robbers. Certainly 
Ireland can show no record of Celtic coolness to com- 
pare with this. In this respect the Enghsh easily 
carry off the palm. 

The Anglo-Saxon is Hkewise very vigilant and 
knows exactly the best time to seize his neighbor's 
property, when his attention is engaged elsewhere or 
distracted by civil dissensions. It was thus that 
England seized upon Ireland, India, and Canada. 
Indeed from time immemorial England has main- 
tained in her secret service a band of spies in every 
country of Europe and America so that she may know 
everything transpiring in these regions which she may 
turn to her own advantage. 

But where the English surpass all other nations is 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON lyi 

m a certain low cunning peculiar to the robber. The 
konest man never has recourse to this base trickery, 
because he has no need of it. It is only the dishonest 
that require it to cover up their crooked ways. 
This explains why the Irish are naturally so credulous, 
because being thoroughly honest themselves they ex- 
pect all others to be like them. 

But the English are just the opposite, and wherever 
they cannot succeed by the strength of the lion they 
have recourse to the cunning of the fox. Their motto 
has ever been: "Divide and conquer." It was thus 
that Queen Elizabeth vanquished Ireland by sowing 
civil dissensions among the Irish chieftains. 

Even in this country, which is supposed to be so 
enlightened, it is remarkable what a great influence 
English cunning exercises over our American states- 
men. An English diplomat has only to speak of 
''our common Anglo-Saxon blood," "our common 
Anglo-Saxon language and literature," "our common 
English bible," and "the immortal Shakespeare," 
when straightway all our Anglo-Maniacs fall at the 
feet of England and shed tears of regret because the 
War of the Revolution ever took place. It is simply 
astonishing how with all their intelligence the people 
of the United States can be so easily cajoled. Every- 
body knows how English flattery came very near 
dragging the United States into an aUiance with 
"Mother England." In fact it might have succeeded 
but for the Irish patriot, Michael Davitt. It is also 
well known what a vast influence the English states- 
man, Joseph Chamberlain, has during the past decade 



172 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

exercised over the foreign policy of the United States. 
There is very little doubt that it was he who drew the 
United States into war with Spain and induced her 
to seize upon the Philippine Islands, in order that she 
might be a counterpoise in the East against Russia 
and also give England a free hand to seize upon the 
Transvaal, with all its rich diamond fields. Once 
having embarked on the business of spoliation the 
United States lost all her moral influence and forfeited 
all right to raise her voice in defence of her sister re- 
pubhcs in South Africa; because then England might 
retort: "See what you yourself are doing in the Phihp- 
pinesl Those who live in glass houses must not throw 
stones." Thus Secretary of State Hay, who pretends 
to be the greatest diplomatist in the world, has been 
really only the cat's paw of England, just as Japan is 
her cat's-paw now in the East against Russia. 

Yet Chamberlain who thus cajoled the United 
States is really her worst enemy; and is now striving 
by building up a tariff wall to make Canada a danger- 
ous rival of this country. Verily these EngHsh are 
exceedingly cunning knaves'. 

Nobody should find fault with people for possessing 
a certain amoimt of shrewdness and circimispection. 
Even the Bible itself recommends prudence, telling 
us to be "wise as serpents." But it likewise instructs 
us to be "harmless as doves." The Irish may be 
"harmless as doves" but they certainly are not "wise 
as serpents"; and it would do them no harm at aU 
to have a little more wordly wisdom. On the other 
hand, the English may be "wise as serpents" but 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 173 

they are not by any means ''harmless as doves." 
As we shall see in a subsequent chapter, their wisdom 
consists of a low, mean, unprincipled cimning. The 
English are the most imscrupulous people in the 
world. They will stop at nothing to accomplish 
their designs. Their history is one continual tale of 
perfidy, hypocrisy, treachery, conspiracy, robbery, 
and even murder of the innocent. 




CHAPT'ER II. 

Irish and English Morality. 

ERE the word morality is not at all confined 
to its restricted sense as the equivalent of 
chastity or social purity but is employed in 
its broadest signification as a synonym for virtue in 
general. It should be well understood that virtue 
does not mean merely a certain outward veneer or 
polish such as frequently passes for respectability 
among the so-called "good society," at the present 
day. All that "good society" is concerned about is 
a fair exterior. As long as a man dresses well, is 
polite, does not smoke, chew, or drink, nor do any- 
thing that shocks the community he is looked upon as 
a good respectable man, though inwardly his heart 
may be full of corruption and in reality he is only a 
whitened sepulchre. 

But the CathoUc Church has never recognized such 
a standard of morahty for her children. After the 
example of the Savior, she insists on regulating the 
whole man — ^his actions, his words, and even his very 
thoughts. The true Catholic must not only act 
rightly but also talk rightly, and even think rightly. 
He must not single out one or two of the ten command- 
ments of God and say: " I pay my debts, and I never 
tell a he " ; whilst at the same time neglecting entirely 
the other eight commandments of the decalogue; but 
be must carefully observe each and every one of the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON lys 

commandments. Moreover, there must be no cant, 
no duplicity, no hypocrisy, no game of Dr. Jekyll 
and Mr. Hyde; but he must be thoroughly and sin- 
cerely honest in his whole heart and soul. 

According to this standard of morality, there is no 
doubt whatever that the Irish are a far more moral 
people than the English. We do not make this claim 
on the testimony of Irish authorities ; for then it wcmld 
be a case of a lawyer pleading his own cause"; but all 
our proof is based on the unwilHng evidence of Eng- 
lishmen themselves, who could not deny the plain 
truth. 

However, it is not at ail our desire to depict every 
Irishman as a regular St. Aloysius and to paint every 
Englishman as black as Lucifer; because everybody 
knows that the Irish as well as the English have their 
faults; and that many EngKshmen have noble traits 
like the Irish. Yet, until quite recently, the average 
Englishman regarded the Irish as a very turbulent 
and criminal race. The British newspapers con- 
tinually referred to them as "The Wild Irish"; be- 
cause, being a brave, patriotic people, they would not 
willingly submit to be exploited by the English for 
their own selfish purposes. 

Even in this country, "the land of the free and the 
home of the brave," many prejudices existed in cer- 
tain quarters against the Irish imtil a few years ago. 
During the recent ante-CathoUc agitation, one of the 
questions asked in the A, P. A. catechism which was 
published by bigots was: "Who fills our prisons ? " and 
the answer was, "The Roman Catholic Irish." 



176 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

But little by little the light of truth began to dawn 
upon the minds of our non-Catholic brethren. The 
late great English statesman, Mr. Gladstone, de- 
servedly called ''the Grand Old Man," though at 
first the deadly enemy of the Irish, was gradually 
forced to recognize their sterling virtues, and no doubt, 
did much to open the eyes of his countrymen to their 
real character. The last years of his life especially 
may be well called the era of good feeUng and con- 
ciliation; for he introduced into ParHament a bill 
which sooner or later is destined to give Home Rule to 
Ireland. America's grand old man, too, the eloquent 
Senator Hoar, who has just passed away, did a great 
deal also to break down the barriers of prejudice 
against the Irish in this continent, so that they are 
now generally recognized at their true value. 

Aside from agrarian and poHtical crime, the sad 
result of Enghsh spoUation, and an unfortunate weak- 
ness to intemperance, which as we have seen in the 
previous chapter, is hkewise the unhappy consequence 
of EngUsh tyranny, the Irish people are the most 
moral race in the world. What greater authority in 
the eyes of an Enghshman than the Encyclopasdia 
Britannical Yet the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth 
edition, in its article "Ireland" (table No. LVI.) tells 
us that for an equal number of population the number 
of the "more serious offences" are far greater in 
England than in Ireland. For the year 1878 there 
were only 3842 in Ireland but 4797 in England. The 
Cheltenham English Examiner also informs us in an 
article dated May 16, 1886, that: "Death sentences 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON lyj 

are eight times greater in England than in Ireland 
for an equal number of population. London, equal in 
population to that of all Ireland, has double the 
number of indictable offences. Rural crime is also 
greater in England than in Ireland. For the same 
population there were in England during 1886, nearly 
twice as many aggravated assaults on women and 
children as in Ireland. England had 597 cases and 
Ireland only 337." The writer who was a Presby- 
terian also assures us that *'The proportion of crime 
is not only greater in Britain than in Ireland, but is 
also of a more brutal character." 

Mr. French, the agent of the notorious Lord 
Landsowne, in his Journals published in 1868, Vol. 
II., page 130, bears testimony that: "There are ten 
times as many murders in England as in Ireland. The 
English ruffian murders for money; the Irish murders 
patriotically — to enforce a principle. The Irish con- 
vict is not necessarily corrupt — he may be reclaimed. 
The English convict is irreclaimable." 

Nobody would ever accuse the late James Anthony 
Froude of any special love for the Irish people. Many 
people now Hving remember how he came out from 
England to this country to discredit them, about 
thirty years ago; and how the eloquent Irish Domin- 
ican, Father Burke, followed in order to defend the 
fair name of his race. Yet probably never was 
grander eulogy pronounced over the Irish than fell 
from the lips of this same Froude in a lecture delivered 
in New York, in 1872. "Ireland," he said, "was one 
of the poorest countries in Europe, yet there was less 



178 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

theft, less cheating, less house-breaking, less robbery 
of all kinds than in any other country of the sanae size 
in the civilized world. In the wildest districts, the 
people slept with unlocked doors and windows witk 
as much security as if they had been with the saints 
in Paradise. In the last hundred years at least, im- 
purity had been almost unknown in Ireland. This 
absence of vulgar crime and this exceptional modesty 
of character were due, to their everlasting honor, t® 
the influence of the CathoHc clergy." 

Equally complimentary to the Irish is the great 
EngUsh writer, Thackeray. In his Irish Sketch Book, 
page 58, he pays the following grand tribute to the 
wom^en of Ireland: "The charming gaiety and frank- 
ness of the Irish ladies have been noted and admired 
by every foreigner who has had the good fortune to 
mingle in their society, and I hope it is not detracting 
from the merit of the upper classes to say that the 
lower are not a whit less pleasing. I never saw in any 
country such a general grace of manner and ladyhood. 
In the midst of their gaiety, too, it must be remembered 
that they are the chastest of women, and that n© 
country in Europe can boast of such general purity." 

On page 11 t, the same author continues: "There 
are no more innocent girls in the world than the Iri^ 
girls, and the women of our squeamish country are 
far more Uable to err. One has but to walk through 
an English and an Irish town and see how much supe- 
rior is the morality of the latter. That great terror- 
striker, the Confessional, is before the Irish girl, and 
sooner or later her sins must be told there." 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 17^ 

How strange that both Froude and Thackeray agree 
that the lofty character and high morality \)f the Irish 
people are due to their religion and the Confessional, 
which so many narrow-minded people say tends to in- 
crease crime, by making its pardon easy! But expe- 
rience teaches just the contrary. When a man goes to 
Confession he must give up sinning. If he relapses 
into the same sin he is soon refused absolution, the 
most effective of all spiritual remedies. Hence, those 
who wish to keep on sinning and leading a wicked life 
give up going to Confession entirely, because they 
know that if they go to Confession they will have to 
amend their lives, to give up their bad habits, to re- 
store their iil-gotten goods, and to repair the injury 
done to their neighbor. 

In all the books which I have read I never found 
but one that really assails the morality of the Irish, 
and gives any data to justify such an attack on their 
character. That is the book to which I have already 
alluded, ''The Priests and People of Ireland," by 
Michael McCarthy. But it is very evident that the 
author of that book was, as we say in America, "only 
playing to the galleries," or in other words only cater- 
ing to the English people, so that they might purchase 
his pubhcation. 

Yet the only trace of immorahty which he seems 
to have been able to discover in the whole of Ireland 
was in a small portion of the City of Dublin, which he 
styled a regular Yoshiwari or Japanese dive. He 
likewise claims that eighty per cent, of the faUen 
women of Dublin, in houses of ill-repute are Catholics. 



i8o THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

But certainly the Irish people may well congratulate 
themselves, even according to Mr. McCarthy's cal- 
culations, to have only one wicked city in the whole 
island. Where is there another country that has such 
a glorious record as that? How many immoral cities 
there are in England it would be indeed difficult to 
count. But how shall we explain the exceptional 
wickedness of Dubhn that renders it so much out of 
harmony with the rest of the country? The explana- 
tion is easy. Though situated in Ireland, in reality 
DubHn is not strictly speaking an Irish city at all. It 
was originally built by the Danes, and has long been 
a kind of cosmopolitan city, which, Uke all great sea- 
port towns, becomes a sink for the moral dregs of the 
world. But what is still more responsible for the 
degradation of Dublin is the proximity of DubHn 
Castle, with its degraded EngHsh garrison. In reaUty 
Dublin is only a suburb of the Castle, and those who 
are in a position to know assure us that it was the 
EngHsh garrison with its troop of vile camp-foUowers 
that debauched the capital of Ireland. This is the 
only inteUigent way to explain why DubHn is so im- 
moral and the rest of the island is so irreproachable. 

It is true the CathoHc Church is supposed to be su- 
preme in DubHn, but what can the clergy do when they 
have not the civil power to enforce their demands? 
People engaged in such nefarious traffic defy the most 
positive commandments of God and His Church. 
The only thing that terrifies them is the policeman's 
club. However, notwithstanding Mr. McCarthy's 
assertion that 80 per cent, of the inmates of Dublin'* 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON iSi 

Mouses of ill-repute are "practical Catholics." 1 un- 
hesitatingly claim that not one of them is a Catholic* 
They may have been Catholics once. They may have 
been born of good Catholic parents and been baptized 
Catholics, but just as soon as they entered on their evil 
ways the Catholic Church excommunicated them. 
She cast them out of her fold as Lucifer was cast out 
of heaven, and now they have no more right to be 
called CathoUcs than the demons in hell have to be 
styled angels since their fall from grace. But after 
all, how incomparably virtuous the Irish people must 
be when even their poHtical enemies have been com- 
pelled to praise theml 

As Englishmen have spoken so eulogistically of the 
Irish, we sincerely wish that we could speak equally 
well of the English race; but unfortunately, regard for 
the truth will not permit us. Be as charitable as you 
may, palliate their faults as much as possible, yet as we 
have already observed in Part II, Chapter V, there is 
something exceedingly brutal and cold-blooded in the 
character of the English that is entirely foreign to 
Irish character. History bears testimony to this fact 

Perhaps there is nothing which better indicates the 
real character of a race than their native religious be- 
lief, unalloyed by any external influences, because a 
people's religious ideals manifest everything that is 
noblest and grandest in their nature, and portray the 
loftiest aspirations of the soul. Yet it is actually a 
fact related in Sanderson's History of England, page 
21, that before the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to 
Christianity, their idea of heaven was "a bright place 



i82 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON' 

called Valhalla, where they should lie on couches quaf- 
fing ale from the skulls of foemen who had fallen m. 
battle." What can we think of a race with sudk 
brutal religious instincts as that? Search all history 
and you will never find such degraded religious senti- 
ments recorded of any other race, even of the lowest 
savages of the forest. 

Another thing which well illustrates the character 
of a people is their humanity or inhumanity in the 
infliction of capital punishment. But scarcely had 
the English gained a foothold in Ireland, in the thir- 
teenth century, when they made a law that any Eng- 
lishman who dared to marry an Irish woman should 
be hanged, and whilst yet alive should have his bowels 
torn out by the executioner, though as Lord Macauiay 
facetiously remarked: "It was not likely that a dis- 
loyal subject could feel himself won back to loyalty 
whilst the hangman was grabbing at his entrails." 
Equally barbarous was that form of execution knowm 
as "hanging, drawing, and quartering," which me&nt 
that the poor, unfortunate victim, when only half 
hanged was cut down and his body was hacked into 
four quarters. Then his mutilated remains were 
hung over a bridge, in the public highway, as a ghastly 
warning to others. Yet these brutal forms of execution 
survived to the davm of the eighteenth century. But 
the most dreadful of all forms of execution was that 
of burning at the stake. Yet, as if these barbarati^ 
were not sufl&ciently cruel, they were frequently pre- 
ceded by torture on the rack, besides which the horrors 
of the Spanish inquisition dwindle into insignificance. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 1S5 

Stiil more brutal, if that were possible, was Eng- 
land's persecution of the Irish people for their fidehty 
te their religion. To read of the barbarities which 
she inflicted on the Irish martyrs would freeze the 
yery life-blood in our veins. A single instance will 
sufl&ce to illustrate her diabolical cruelty. In the 
time of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop O'HerUhy, because 
he would not acknowledge the Queen as Pope, had 
his feet stuffed into tin boots filled with oil and then 
placed in stocks over the fire until the boiling oil had 
eaten away every particle of flesh up to his knees. 
During this dreadful torture the heroic bishop groaned 
and sobbed so piteously that he would move the heart 
©f a Sioux or a Comanche Indian; but his moans had 
BO more effect on his English torturers than they 
would have on the demons of hell. 

Can we be astonished that people of such a character 
employed the scalping Indians of the forest against 
their own flesh and blood in the American Revolu- 
tionary War? The great English statesman, William 
Pitt, himself, bears testimony to this, and denounces 
this uncivilized method of warfare in his speeches, 
in which he describes the savages as "butchering, 
mutilating, and even devouring their mangled victims." 

No doubt it will be alleged that all this occurred a 
long time ago and that since then the EngUsh character 
has become much more humane. It is quite true 
that if you meet an educated Enghshman at the pres- 
ent day he appears to be the most poHshed, the most 
refined, and the most cultured gentleman in the world. 
Yet, after fourteen centuries of Christianity, the civil- 



i84 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

ization of England is only skin deep. I think that it 
was Bismarck who said: "Scratch an Englishman and 
you find a savage," and certainly the Englishmaa 
proved this only a few years ago, in the Boer War. 

Though pretending to be filled with horror at the 
ferocity of the Turks towards the poor Armenians 
and turning up the whites of their eyes at the Russian 
atrocities in Siberia, these saintly EngUsh did not 
scruple to use against the Boers Dum Dum or explos- 
ive bullets, condemned by all civilized nations and 
even by the English themselves at the Hague Interna- 
tional Peace Conference a short time before. Worse 
still — even at this era of enlightenment, the opening 
of the twentieth century, they actually employed the 
savage Hottentots of South Africa to shoot down the 
gallant Boer farmers battling for hberty, and to mas- 
sacre their noble wives, mothers, and children, whilst 
their heroic sons, husbands, and fathers were defending 
their country on the battle-field. But most shameful 
of all — ^these brave English soldiers themselves actually 
made war on the poor, helpless Boer women and chil- 
dren, collecting them into what were styled Concen- 
tration Camps, where they died by the hundreds of 
hunger and disease, so that finally, to save them from 
extermination, the gallant Boer soldiers laid down their 
arms. Indeed, Colonel Blake, the commander of the 
Irish Brigade, who fought side by side with the Boers, 
and afterwards wrote the history of the war, assures 
us that but for the sake of their women and children 
these heroic farmers would never have surrendered 

What a dreadful story of English brutality! Yet 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 185 

England's moral turpitude, is, if that were possible, 
of a still darker dye. A single walk through London, 
travellers tell us, is sufficient to convince any unprej- 
udiced mind that it is the most immoral city in the 
world. Here is an extract from an article in the New 
York Sun of November 13, 1892, in which an im- 
partial American relates what he witnessed in London 
with his own eyes: 

"The degradation of woman is more common in 
London than in any other great city of the world. 
Nowhere is the social evil so obtrusive and so unre- 
pressed. Vice in London is more repulsive than in 
more seductive Paris. But what it lacks in gilding 
it makes up in obtrusiveness and insistence. No- 
where on earth can anything be found to match the 
scenes in Regent Street, Piccadilly, and the Strand, 
late at night. Soliciting by women is entirely im- 
checked by the police. An American gentleman 
walked along the Strand for a single block one even- 
ing last week, (November 3, 1892), without in any way 
encouraging attention except by his rather slow walk, 
and he was accosted by no less than twenty-six women. 
Within a hundred yards of Piccadilly Circus there may 
be counted on any pleasant evening from 150 to 300 
bold, painted faces that mark as plainly as would a 
branding-iron the name of outcast. 

London shuts its official eye to the whole thing, and 
as a result vice flaunts itself where it will. Even day- 
light does not shame it out of sight. Criticism is an 
ungracious task, but when the subjects of it are them- 
selves the critics of all the world, perhaps no apology 



i86 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

is needed. The temptation to point the finger of 
scorn at London — hypercritical, hypocritical London 
— is far greater than to join in the chorus of denuncia- 
tion of gay and slandered Paris. Paris is gloriously 
wicked, London is guiltily so." 

We might imagine that perhaps the moral condition 
of London has improved very much since the above 
lines were written over a decade ago. But, on the con- 
trary, it seems to have deteriorated still more, and vice 
has become much bolder. An American gentleman 
just returned from Europe has assured me that fallen 
women as thick as flies still infest that portion of Lon- 
don which is called the Strand, and so audacious have 
they become that they sometimes snatch the hats of 
travellers off their heads in order that they may pursue 
them into some low dive where they are robbed b} 
their male confederates. 

England cannot say Hke Ireland that she has only 
one immoral city within her borders, for what has 
been related of London is equally true of all the rest 
of England. Mr. Joseph Kay, though himself an 
EngHshman, in his famous work, ''The Social Condi- 
tion of the Enghsh People," page ii8, declares that: 

'*In the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk illegitimacy 
is very prevalent. The immorality of the young 
women is literally horrible, and I regret to say that it 
is on the increase in a most alarming degree. No 
person seems to think anything at all of it. There 
appears to be among the lower class a perfect deadness 
of all moral feeling upon the subject, and is is abso- 
lutely impossible to convince them that immorality is 



**H^. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 187 

wrong. They generally say that if they never do 
anything worse than that they shall get to Heaven as 
well as other people." 

But still more frightful is the account of English 
immorality from the pen of an Anghcan minister, the 
Rev. J. B. Sweet, Vicar of Devon, in 1883: 

"Our fashionable and vulgar morality," he says, 
Hs the natural product of our popular theology. 
Licentiousness, dishonesty, profligacy, gambhng, and 
im morality characterize large classes of society. At no 
previous date in Enghsh history, has the marriage- 
bond, the very basis of society, been so openly vio- 
lated and dishonored as to-day. The Divorce-Law 
of the State is eating into the very vitals of the nation. 
It permits and encourages dissolution of marriage on 
easy terms, faciUtates (whilst protesting against) col- 
lusive actions for adultery, and floods the whole realm 
with vile details of evidence given in the divorce courts. 
What wonder that marriage is made by multitudes a 
cloak for sin, that concubinage increases, and that, 
the streets of our metropohs and of various provin- 
cial towns are said to swarm with prostitutes, often, 
mere children, to an extent never known before!" 

What a horrifying picture of English immorahty! 
Thanks be to God such a horrible state of things 
would not be permitted for a single day in Catholic 
Ireland. According to statistics for an equal number 
of population, there is over three times more immoral- 
ity in England than in Ireland. But the darkest of 
all of England's dark crimes is the awful sin of infan- 
ticide, that awful transgression which cries to heaven 



i88 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

for vengeance. As Holy Scripture says: "Tell it not in 
Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ascalon." Even 
the fiercest tiger in the forest will defend her offspring 
with the last drop of her blood, but the EngKsh who 
claim to be the most enhghtened, the most civiHzed, the 
most cultured and the most refined people in the world, 
actually murder their own children, sometimes before 
they are bom at all — and generally for the sake of 
money, so that the support of their Httle ones may not 
be a burden to them or an obstacle to the accumula- 
tion of wealth. Can we imagine anything more 
brutal, more unnatural, more heartless, and more 
cold-blooded than this ? Yet it is no invention of the 
imagination, no fabrication of an enemy, for even can- 
did Enghshmen themselves in shame and sorrow have 
been compelled with blushes to acknowledge its truth. 
Mr. Kay, whom we have already quoted so often, 
thus sadly refers to this unspeakable crime: 

"Alas, these accounts are only too true! There can 
be no doubt that a great part of the poorer classes of 
this country are sunk in such a frightful depth of hope- 
lessness, of misery, and utter moral degradation that 
even mothers forget their affection for their helpless 
children and kill them as a butcher does his lambs, in 
order to make money by murder." 

A Protestant clergyman, also, the Rev. Canon 
Humble, in an article contributed to The Church and 
the World, in 1866, furnishes us with still more ghastly 
details of this indescribable crime: 

"Bundles are left lying about the streets which 
people will not touch lest the too famiHar object — a 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 189 

child's body — should be revealed, perchance with a 
pitch-plaster over its mouth, or a woman's garter 
round its throat. Thus, too, the metropolitan canal 
boats are impeded, as they are tracked along, by the 
number of drowned infants with which they come in 
contact, and the land is becoming defiled with the 
blood of the innocent. We are told by Dr. Lankester 
that there are 12,000 women in London to whom the 
crime of child-murder may be attributed. In other 
words one out of every thirty women between the ages 
of fifteen and forty-five years is a murderess." 

Mr. Kay again assur.es us that in 1850 it was "a 
common practice for the degraded poor in many towns 
to enter their children in what were called 'burial 
clubs' and then cause their death by starvation, ill- 
usage, or poison in order to get the insurance money." 
He cites as an example how in the City of Manchester, 
*'One man put his children into nineteen clubs and 
one single club boasted of 34,100 members, though 
the whole population of the town was only 36,000. '^ 

The Rev. B. Waugh, likewise, in an article contrib- 
uted to the Contemporary Review, May, 1890, on 
"Baby Farming" and another on "Child Insurance," 
in the same magazine, July i89r>, affirms that more 
than a thousand children — most of them no doubt ille- 
gitimate — are murdered annually in England for insur- 
ance money. Even so recently as May, 1891, the 
London Times related how the lifeless bodies of ten 
infants had just been found floating on the Thames, 
with their skulls fractured, their nostrils flattened over 
their faces, and their heads all knocked to pieces. 



I90 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Surely the wrath of God must soon fall upon Eng- 
land for this wholesale murder of the innocents, whose 
cries ascend to heaven calling for justice on their 
murderers. For tw^enty centuries Herod has been 
justly execrated by the whole world for slaughtering 
the babes of Bethlehem, but what were the few hun- 
dred put to death by Herod to the tens of thousands 
murdered in England by their own fathers and 
mothers ? Search all the records of all the most wicked 
pagan cities of old, condemned in the pages of Holy 
Writ, and you w^ill not find anything so horrible as the 
moral condition of England at the present day. Tyre, 
Sidon, and Ninive, w^hich God once threatened to 
destroy within forty days, were saintly cities in com- 
parison with London. Even Sodom and Gomorrah 
on which the Lord rained down fire and brimstone 
were respectable in contrast with it. 

"What must we think of the character of the Eng- 
lish people who are guilty of such brutal, unnatural, 
cold-blooded crimes against their own offspring, and 
have no more regard for the life of their children than 
that of a dog or a cat? Must they not be entirely 
lacking in every reHgious instinct, every generous im- 
pulse, every noble, humane sentiment? Must they 
not have the heart of a hyena ? 

God forbid that we should insult the noble, gener- 
ous, pure. God-fearing Irish by comparing them to 
such a totally depraved race, guilty of such hell-bom 
crimes! It is quite true that the Irish have their own 
pecuHar faults and failings Mke other races, but at 
least they have never been so wild or savage as to 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 191 

murder their own offspring, and by destroying the 
family undermine the very foundations of all 
society. 

But our American readers m.ay ask: ''If the Irish 
are such model people at home why have they such 
an unenviable criminal record in this country?" At 
first thought we might be tempted to retort that per- 
haps the Americans themselves did not always set 
them good example. But, on more mature dehber- 
ation, we are convinced that there are two other causes 
which are far more responsible for the alleged criminal- 
ity of our race in the United States. They are emi- 
gration and the saloon. Transplanting is rarely ben- 
eficial either to a tree or to man. How often a beau- 
tiful tree that is transplanted withers and dies! So 
everybody at all experienced knows that emigration 
from one's native land is a dangerous trial to virtue. 
At home a man has everything to strengthen his moral 
character. He and his family may he well-known 
and highly respected in the community. Therefore, 
he has not only to maintain his own good name but 
also that of his family, since even the humblest Irish 
family is as proud of its family tree as the greatest 
royal house of Europe. But when an Irishman leaves 
his native land and comes into a strange country, 
where nobody knows him and he has no family honor 
to sustain, he would not be human if he did not ex- 
perience a great temptation to indulge in dissipation. 
This is the conclusion arrived at by an American 
gentleman by the name of Mr. Charles Brace, after 
an investigation of twenty years among the emigrants 



192 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

of New York. The result of his observations he sums 
up in the following words: 

"There is no question that the breaking up of the 
ties with one's country has a bad moral effect, 
especially on the laboring class. The emigrant is 
released from the social inspection and judgment to 
which he has been subjected at home, and the tie of 
Church and priesthood is weakened. If a Roman 
Catholic he is often a worse CathoHc without being a 
better Protestant. If a Protestant he often becomes 
indifferent. Moral ties are loosened with the religious. 
The consequence is that most of the criminals of New 
York are foreign-born, and the majority of these were 
bom in Ireland; and yet at home the Irish are one of 
the most law-abiding and virtuous of populations — 
the proportion of criminals being smaller than in 
England." 



CHAPTER III. 

Alleged Irish Intemperance. 

THIS is a subject which every Irish author ap- 
proaches with fear and trembling, because 
he knows that intemperance has been for 
centuries the curse and the national sin of his race. 
Do what he will, explain it as best he can, place the 
responsibility wherever, he may, he cannot deny the 
fact, for everybody knows it, especially here in the 
United States. Nothing remains but to confess it in 
shame and humiliation, for "a, fault confessed is half 
redressed." 

No imagination can picture, no mind can conceive , 
no tongue can tell all the evils that this dreadful vice 
has brought upon our race. How many wives it has 
made widows, how many children it has made orphans, 
how many victims it has driven to insanity or to an 
early grave, how many families it has broken up, how 
many adherents it has caused to be lost to the Chiu-ch, 
God alone can tell! 

As we look around this great country to-day it is 
gratifying to notice how many poor Irish emigrants 
who came here less than a score of years ago now pos- 
sess nice, comfortable homes of their own, whilst their 
sons are going to college and their daughters to an 
academy. Certainly this speaks volumes for their 
thrift, their industry, and their temperate habits. 
But how many other Irishmen who came here at the 



194 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

same time are still living in wretched hovels not fit for 
swine 1 Their wives and children are starving with 
the hunger, their clothing is in rags, and they would 
perish with the cold in the Winter if the Church did 
not take pity on them ; whilst their miserable husbands 
and fathers spend all their earnings for intoxicaitng 
liquor on a Saturday night, instead of bringing home 
their wages for the support of their families. 

In times gone by how many other Irish fathers and 
mothers, unworthy of the name, did not intemperance 
plunge into prison or into an early grave! But what 
became of their poor, unfortunate children? Before 
Catholic homes were erected to receive them they 
passed into the hands of the State — a Protestant State. 
The State transferred them into the custody of Prot- 
estant families, hundreds of them were shipped out 
West to other Protestant families, and brought up 
Protestants. That is one of the principal reasons 
why to-day we find so many Protestants having good, 
old, Irish-CathoUc names. But that is the only thing 
Catholic about them, for they are the most bigoted of 
all Protestants, and they hate the Catholic Church 
more than all other Protestants, because that is the 
way they were instructed by their Protestant foster- 
parents. It is estimated that 10,000,000 souls have 
been lost to the Catholic Church in this country alone. 
There is no doubt that many of these losses are due to 
the e\dls of mixed marriages and the scarcity of priests 
in the early days of American history, but no incon- 
siderable part of this leakage may be attributed to the 
conduct of unworthy parents, through whose intem- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 195 

perance many children were lost to the true faith. 
But for these defections the number of Catholics in 
the United States would be double what it is to-day. 
Instead of only 10,000,000 Catholics we should have 
2o,ooo,oof\ Thus we have lost more by perversion 
than we have gained by conversion. 

It is very hard to understand how the Irish, whose 
character, as we have observed in the previous chapter, 
is naturally so noble, could degrade themselves to 
such a beastly sin as gluttony, like that low, degraded 
animal called the glutton, which eats and drinks until 
it has made itself sick. The explanation is that the 
Irish are not naturally more intemperate than people 
of other races but they have been very unfortunate 
indeed in the selection of their national beverage. 
The German loves his beer, the Frenchman, the Italian 
and the Spaniard their wines. These are all only 
slightly intoxicating liquors, but very unhappily for 
the Irishman, his choice has been the highly intox- 
icating whiskey. This explains why people on the 
continent of Europe may drink nearly all day and yet 
be considered a temperate race, but very Httle expe- 
rience with whiskey is sufficient to brand the Irishman 
as a drunkard anr^ a criminal. It is thus that the 
Irish have got such a reputation for criminaHty. 

Before the invention of whiskey the Irish people were 
a most exemplary race. They were a nation of saints 
and scholars. When St. Patrick went to convert them 
fifteen centuries ago, drunkenness was unknown 
amongst them, because whiskey had not yet been in- 
vented, nor for centuries afterwards. If it had, it is 



196 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

likely that even St. Patrick himself could not have 
converted Ireland so easily. But if only St. Patrick 
would rise from the dead and visit his spiritual chil- 
dren to-day, what a change he would find! No doubt 
he would discover a great many Irish CathoUcs lead- 
ing good, sober, temperate lives to-day as in his own 
time, but how many others would he behold disgracing 
their family, their Church, and their religion by their 
intemperate lives! 

It is now more than eight centuries since whiskey 
was first invented, and who can calculate all the mis- 
fortunes which it has occasioned our race during all 
that time? If the Arabian chemist who invented it 
in the eleventh century could have forseen all the mis- 
chief it would produce in the world he would never 
have made known his discovery to mankind. From 
Arabia merchants carried over the new invention to 
Ireland and it was there, I regret to say, that it received 
the name which it bears to the present day. The 
word whiskey is an Irish expression that means 
"the water of life." If the poor Irishman that gave 
it such a fanciful title could have foreknown what 
havoc it would have wrought among his countrymen, 
he would never have given it such a high-sounding 
appellation. He would probably have styled it "fire- 
water" as the Indians of the forest named it when it 
was first introduced among them, for that is the name 
it deserves. 

For hundreds of years the Catholic Church has 
been striving hard to eradicate the vice of intemper- 
ance from the hearts of the Irish people, otherwise her 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON igy 

noblest subjects. Everywhere she has established tem- 
perance societies and raised up powerful temperance 
crusaders to combat this terrible evil. Where, out- 
side the Catholic Church, has there ever been found 
a great temperance reformer like Father Matthew, 
who, in a visit to the United States, administered the 
total abstinence pledge to 600,000 of his countrymen, 
besides millions of others in Ireland, England, and Scot- 
land? In this country, too, even at the present day, 
what a gallant corps of temperance leaders we have 
in Archbishop Ireland, Bishop Conaty, and the Rev. 
John Mullen, D.D., of Boston, who is now so ably 
filling the place of the late lamented Father Scully! 

Moreover, at the last Plenary Council of Baltimore ^ 
all the CathoHc Bishops of the United States condem- 
ned the Uquor traffic as a disreputable business, and 
called upon all Catholics to give up the liquor saloon 
and engage in some more honorable occupation, as 
soon as possible. Besides, several CathoHc societies, 
such as the Knights of Columbus, and the CathoUc 
Union of Boston, positively refuse to admit to mem- 
bership in these associations anyone who is in any 
way connected with the Hquor business. 

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that most of those 
engaged in the Hquor business are still Irish CathoHcs, 
and this has given our EngHsh cousins a pretext for 
asserting that the Catholic Church is the fruitful 
mother of rum-sellers and drunkards. But nothing 
is further from the truth. This base calumny comes 
with very poor grace especially from those who are not 
by any means models of temperance themselves. In- 



iqS the celt above the SAXON 

deed, it is a fact not generally known that intemperate 
as the Irish certainly are, the English are far more so. 
We do not say thfs to excuse the intemperance of the 
Irish but simply to remind their critics that they should 
"cast the beam out of their own eye before they at- 
tempt to take the mote out of their brother's eye." 
The inebriety of the Irish has become so notorious, 
because the EngHsh, in order to withdraw the attention 
of mankind from their own faults, have published the 
defects of our race all over the world. Even the 
amiable Thackeray has an intoxicated Irishman as 
one of the low characters of one of his novels which is 
called "Pendennis." 

Yet, according to statistics, there is far more intox- 
icating liquor consumed in England and Scotland 
than there is in Ireland. Mulhall, though himself an 
Englishman and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical 
Society, tells us in his "Dictionary of Statistics," a 
work of great research composed in 1892, that the 
average yearly consumption of alcoholic liquor, for 
each inhabitant of the United Kingdom is, in Ireland, 
only 1.40 gallons, in Scotland, 1.60 gallons, but in 
England 2.13 gallons. It is true there are more con- 
victions for drunkenness in Ireland in proportion to 
the population than in England, but, as we shall soon 
see that is because the laws against intoxication are en- 
forced in Ireland and not in England. On the other 
hand, the number of deaths from inebriety, is consid- 
erably greater in England in proportion to population 
than in Ireland. Indeed, if London is any criterion 
of the rest of England, that kingdom mast be the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 199 

most intemperate nation in the world. Here is an 
extract from the New York Sun, of Nov, 13, 1892, 
which contains some very startHng truths: 

"The degradation of woman in London is more 
common than in any other great city of the world. 
Nowhere else is drunkenness as common among 
women as among men. All her public bars are 
thronged with women; there are more drunken 
women on her streets than drunken men; and a very 
large majority of the prisoners complained of in her 
principal police courts for being 'drunk and dis- 
orderly' are women. This has been the state of things 
for some time, but the evil has been growing rapidly 
worse, and it was not until the Daily Telegraph began 
a series of graphic portrayals of the great disgrace 
under the caption "The National Shame" that the 
callous pubUc conscience was aroused. 

In America it would be safe to assume, nine times 
out of ten, that a woman seen drinking at a pubHc 
saloon bar was a drunkard and that she was not a 
stranger to the poHce court. The practice is unknown 
even among the lowest resorts. On the other hand 
almost every pubHc bar in London has a very large 
portion of it partitioned off for the special use of female 
customers. This does not mean that there is any real 
privacy or separation of the sexes. Gin is the utmost 
tipple and gin is to-day a greater curse to EngHsh 
women than whiskey is to all America. 

Statistics of vice are entirely untrustworthy data 
upon which to base an estimate of the moral standing 
of a community or nation. The town which enforces 



300 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

in the courts the laws against drunkenness and un- 
chastity for instance, appears on the records to be 
steeped in vice, while its profligate neighbor, which 
scarcely represses indulgence in vicious appetites, 
passes for a model community. But if everybody 
who got drunk in London were arrested, all the jails 
and poUce stations of the metropolis could liot hold 
the prisoners. No one is ever arrested in London for 
simple intoxication. The law as it stands does not 
permit it. The police have not even authority to ar- 
rest a drunken person in a place of public amusement. 

A woman drunk or under the influence of liquor is 
a rare sight in the streets of New York. But in the 
streets of London, the black-bonnetted, black-gowned, 
shabby, hstless figiure, with pale, prematurely old, 
sHghtly bloated face, bearing traces still of refinement, 
with bony, white hands holding the black shawl tightly 
about her, standing patiently and pennilessly outside 
the public house, is a sight more famihar than the 
poUceman on the comer. She does not beg. That 
would be a crime, and would bring swift punishment 
as does every offence under the English law which in 
the least threatens an EngHshman's purse. She waits, 
no matter how long, until another of her class, more 
fortunate than she comes with a few coins to purchase 
and share the 'drop,' which alone brings them a poor 
counterfeit of happiness. 

Lady Frederick Cavendish in a recent address 
before the annual Church Congress said: 

'In the old, heavy-drinking days, excess among the 
ladies was to the best of my belief, absolutely unknown. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 201 

Can we say so much to-day? Are nips at it A. M. 
or after dinner unheard of or never resorted to by 
ladies ? I must also here protest against a new fashion 
of young ladies — or old ones for that matter — accom- 
panying the gentlemen to the smoking-room after 
dinner and sharing not only the cigars but the spirits 
and water.'" 

No wonder that England is getting alarmed over 
the intemperance of her citizens, when according to 
statistics 60,000 people die in England every year 
of the effects of intoxicating drink; there are 600,000 
habitual drunkards in Britain and 8,373 of these are 
women I With such a terrible record for intemperance 
how can the English with any sort of decency point 
the finger or scorn at the Irish for lack of sobriety? 

Though we shall not at all attempt to excuse or 
palliate the faults of our countrymen, there is no doubt 
that their intemperance has been greatly exaggerated, 
and they have been placed in a false light in compar- 
ison with other races. The prosperous Yankee or 
Englishman has all the liquor he wishes in his own 
house, or he has a sumptuous club-room where he 
may drink as much as he pleases. If he gets intox- 
icated his comrades call a hack and send him home, 
so that he may sleep off his debauch. Next day he is 
as sober as ever and few are the wiser of his condition 
the previous night. But as most of our Irish emigrants 
to this country have hitherto been very poor, the bar- 
room was their cheapest club-room. However, if 
they happened to indulge a Uttle to excess, there they 
had no hackman to take them home and nine times out 



202 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

of ten fell into the arms of a policeman. Besides, it 
is very unfortimate for the Irishman that an excess 
of liquor generally makes him very belligerent. Whilst 
intoxication stupefies an Englishman or a Scotchman 
and reduces him to the condition of a brute, it gen- 
erally makes the Irishman so lively that as Henry 
Cabot Lodge said: "He wants to annihilate all the 
enemies of his native land." Accordingly he generally 
mistakes the police officer who arrests him for an 
Orangeman. The result is that next day he is in 
court not only on a charge of drunkenness, but like- 
wise of assault. Thus the poor Irishman has built up 
for himself an unmerited criminal record which the 
more prosperous Englishman has been spared. 

If Irishmen w^ould avoid this undeserved reproach 
in the future, the only safe course to follow^ is to give 
up imbibing whiskey altogether. Nobody but a fa- 
natic will assert that whiskey is bad in itself, or that it 
is sinful to drink it in moderation, but there is gener- 
ally so much danger of drinking to excess that it is 
far better to abstain from it entirely. If our country- 
men must have some stimulant, let them, like the 
French, the ItaUans, and the Spaniards drink only 
wine, or imitate the Germans, who pass a most pleas- 
ant evening of sociability over a couple of glasses of beer 
and a few songs. 

Another wise resolution which the Irish people 
should take is to give up the habit of treating. There 
is no doubt that this has been the immediate cause of 
much of their intemperance in the past. It is not from 
brutal love of liquor that an Irishman drinks but gen- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 203 

erally for friendship's sake. So when a company of 
Irishmen meet together, each one insists on treating 
his comrades in turn until they are all intoxicated. 
Hence the late Cardinal Newman once said that: 
"The Irishman drinks from sociability, but the Eng- 
lishman from brutality." Consequently, if the Irish 
were not so free-hearted and free-handed, if they ab- 
stained from whiskey and did away with the old, 
obsolete, threadbare custom of treating, they would 
be the most temperate people in the world. Then 
they would soon become a great power at home and 
abroad. This would do more than anything else to 
hasten Home Rule; for it would be the best proof that 
they are capable of governing themselves. 

In this country, too, it would increase their influence 
a hundred fold. As the Yankees are now dying out, 
the Irish would inherit all the property which they have 
been accumulating for hundreds of years. Instead 
of a New England we should soon have a New Ire- 
land. This whole vast country would simply be a 
Land of Promise for our race. Will they or will they 
not prove worthy of their heritage ? If they fail to take 
advantage of their opportunity, the French, the Ital- 
ians, the Hebrews, and the Negroes, who are following 
closely behind them, will receive the grand inheritance 
which they failed to grasp. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Are the Irish an Envious Race? 

N'EXT to the accusation of intemperance there 
is no charge more frequently made against 
the Irish people than that they are a very en- 
vious race, who are jealous of the prosperity of their 
Enghsh neighbors and of one another. However, it 
would be very hard for their accusers to substantiate 
this baseless allegation. The general character of the 
Irish people is sufficient proof against such a con- 
temptible slander. 

The Irish are naturally a kind-hearted, frank, open 
people, full of good-nature and sunshine. Every trav- 
eller who visits their isle immediately remarks that. 
One of the first things that attracted the attention of 
the EngUsh writer, Thackeray, on his visit to Ireland 
more than half a century ago, was the genial, hospit- 
able disposition of the inhabitants. But certainly that 
is not the congenial soil for the weeds of envy to grow. 

Nevertheless, it is true that in spite of all his good 
nature, wherever you meet an Irishman, whether in 
his native land or in exile in distant climes, he almost 
invariably manifests a deep-seated hatred against 
England and the English Government. Indeed, this 
is a feeUng which he makes no attempt to conceal, 
and it is even more intense in those who have left their 
native land than in those who have remained at home. 

Any sensible man can see at a glance that this feel- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 205 

ing of resentment is the very best proof of English 
tyranny, oppression, and misgovemment in Ireland. 
The slightest exercise of common sense should con- 
vince anyone that a people so good and amiable as the 
Irish naturally are would not entertain such bitter 
feeKngs in their heart for no reason whatsoever. It 
is clear that it must have sprung from some wrong, 
and a very grievous wrong, or some great injury on 
the part of England. 

Yet the English pretend that they cannot under- 
stand this deep antipathy of the Irish people towards 
them. They are completely at a loss to comprehend 
it and the only explanation they can give is that the 
Irish are jealous of them, and envy their fine army, 
their splendid navy, and their world-wide empire. 
But there are none so blind as those who will not see; 
and certainly the English must be wilfully blind if 
they can give no better explanation than this of Irish 
hostility to them. 

Though the Irish people are sensitive, they do not 
easily take offence; though impulsive, they easily for- 
give and forget a wrong; but when century after cen- 
tury the EngUsh have driven the iron of oppression 
deep down into their very soul, it is natural that there 
should settle in their heart a profound feeling of hatred 
for England which it is very hard to eradicate. How 
can the poor Irishman, eking out a miserable subsist- 
ence for himself and family on a barren Irish hillside, 
entertain warm feelings of regard for England which 
deprived him of rich, ancestral estates that rightly be- 
long to him? Why should the Irish in America 



2o6 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

tenderly love dear "Mother England" that drove them 
into exile from their native land ? We can readily un- 
derstand, therefore, v^hy the Irish hate England, but 
how the Enghsh could expect the Irish to love them 
after all the injuries which they have inflicted upon 
them is beyond our comprehension. 

What wonder then that the Irish were glad of Eng- 
land's humiliation during the late Boer Warl What 
wonder that priests in the course of their ministry some- 
times meet good, old honest Irishmen who declare 
that the only sin they ever commit is to curse Eng- 
land! What wonder that England occasionally ex- 
periences a nightmare of terror at the prospect of 
some Irish Fenians or Clan-na- Gaels blowing up Lon- 
don Bridge and dynamiting the English House of 
Parliament! Like the Nihilists and Anarchists, who 
are the offspring of Russian and German despotism, 
these Irish revolutionary societies are the direct result 
of English tyranny and misgovernment. 

Yet it must be remembered that such secret organ- 
izations are discountenanced by the better class among 
the Irish people. The great majority of the Irish race 
are good, faithful Christians and loyal Catholics who 
endeavor to keep all the commandments of God and 
the Church. Our Saviour has commanded us to love 
even our worst enemies, so they strive to love even the 
English who have inflicted so much injury upon them. 
However, this does not mean at all that they may not 
still hate the misdeeds of England. It is true we are 
bound to love our enemies, but we are not obliged to 
love their evil deeds. So, when the Irish express their 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 207 

dislike of England, as a general rule, it is not Britain 
herself or her inhabitants that they hate but only their 
wrong-doing, and it is perfectly lawful to speak out 
boldly against wrong wherever it exists. 

Englishmen may call this envy if they please, but it 
would be exceedingly difficult task for them to prove 
the Irish guilty of it. In order to convict anyone of a 
crime in a court of justice the first thing to do is to 
establish a motive for his criminal act, and unless this 
can be proved it will be impossible to condemn him. 
But the Irish people have absolutely no motive for 
envying England. To be envious of anyone implies 
that he has some accomplishment, virtue, or property 
which we do not possess, but which we covet. Now 
what has England that Ireland would wish to acquire ? 
Where is the Irishman, be he ever so poor, who would 
desire to possess the rapacity of England and to have 
all her robberies and spoliations weighing down upon 
his soul? No! not for the whole world would the 
Irish with all their poverty change places with Eng- 
land, for she has certainly a dark record which is not 
at all to be envied. I am quite sure the Irish would 
not grudge England her possessions if she had ac- 
quired them honorably and had not so grievously in- 
jured Ireland herself. How strange that they are 
never accused of being envious of France, Prussia, 
and the United States! 

No doubt there are envious individuals of the Irish 
race as well as of all other races ; but we cannot admit 
that envy is a sin specially peculiar to the Irish people 
as a whole. Envy is one of the seven capital sins and 



3o8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

all races have a fair share of it. Cain, the first mur- 
derer, who killed his brother Abel, was never accused 
of being an Irishman. But if the Irish are envious of 
England because they denounce her robberies and 
spoliations, on the very same principle the whole 
world must be jealous of her, for she is to-day hated 
by nearly every other nation under heaven. She has 
not a friend in the world except Pagan Japan which 
befriends her for her own selfish interest. 

But has England herself been ever envious? Cer- 
tainly not, the poor, guileless creature! She is like a 
little, innocent lamb and the other nations of the world 
Hke envious wolves prowling around her. Neverthe- 
less, can England satisfactorily explain why in the 
penal days she strictly forbade Ireland to engage in 
commerce until British trade was firmly estabUshed 
in all the markets of the world ? Was it not because 
she was envious of Irish competition? Again, why 
did she goad the Irish people into rebelHon so as 
have a pretext for taking away their ParHament 
in 1800? Was it not because she was jealous to 
see Ireland prospering so much under Home Rule? 

Now England has no longer any reason to be en- 
vious of Erin, because poor Ireland is down in the dust, 
her population has dwindled to a handful, her com- 
merce destroyed by adverse EngUsh legislation and 
England has already acquired all the markets of the 
world. It is therefore now perfectly safe for England 
to ask Ireland with mock gravity why the Irish people 
do not compete with the English in a fair field for the 
commerce of the universe. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 209 

But there are three other nations of whom England 
is insanely envious; they are the United States, Ger- 
many, and Russia. For many years the United States 
and Germany have been underselling England in ail 
the markets of the world, until finally Englishmen had 
the humiUation of seeing American goods sold in Eng- 
land cheaper than they could manufacture goods of 
the same quality at home. What pangs of envy must 
have filled the heart of England on beholding such a 
national disgrace! What wonder that poor Joseph 
Chamberlain in desperation thought he would remedy 
matters by aboHshing the old English system of Free 
Trade, and estabUshing a tariff in England, as in the 
United States! But unfortunately his scheme seems 
to have proved a failure. 

Though England pretends to be the special friend 
of the United States, there is no other country in the 
world of which she is more envious, because she re- 
gards her as her most dangerous rival. One very re- 
markable thing about an Enghshman is that he is 
very clever in concealing his feeUngs. If an Irish- 
man is envious of anyone he lets the whole world 
know it, but an Englishman may be full of envy 
towards a person and yet pretend to be his best friend. 
But actions speak louder than words. In spite of all 
England's protestations of friendship for this country, 
Americans cannot forget how, during the Civil War, 
she manifested her hidden envy by subsidizing the 
Southern Confederacy and fitting out the Alabama 
to prey upon American commerce. 

England's envy of the United States in the West is 



2IO THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

rivalled only by her jealousy of Russia in the East. 
Who can count how many nights English statesmen 
must have remained awake fearing that when they 
arose in the morning they might find the Russian Bear ' 
with one huge paw upon China and the other upon 
India ? Who can be ignorant that it was this English 
jealousy which brought about the present inhuman 
war between Russia and Japan? Afraid herself to 
attack the great Colossus of the North, England cun- 
ningly pushed Japan into the conflict, but though so 
far victorious, in all UkeHhood before the war is fin- 
ished, the little brown men will pay dearly for their 
fool-hardiness in becoming the tools of England. 

It is perfectly clear then that the English have more 
than their share of envy and the Irish have no mo- 
nopoly of this despicable vice. Yet it is unfortunately 
true that the Irish people themselves sometimes lend 
coloring to this accusation by their petty quarrels 
among themselves and their thoughtless remarks 
about one another in the presence of strangers. It is 
but too true that there has been a great deal of civil 
dissensions in Ireland from the time Malachy and 
Brian Boru fought for the sovereignty of the island 
down to the five-cornered wrangle between Sexton 
McCarthy, Healy, Dillon, and Redmond to determine 
who should be the leader of the Irish Parliamentary 
Party. The Irish in America folded their arms and 
looked calmly on whilst this faction fight wasted the 
strength of their countrymen at home, simply protest- 
ing that such a lamentable state of things could never 
exist amongst themselves in this enlightened country. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 211 

Yet when recently, for the second time m American 
History, a noble Irishman was nominated as candidate 
for Mayor of this Puritan City of Boston, was it not 
another member of his own race that stabbed him in 
the back and for a time impeded his advancement? 
But it was only for a brief period, because Mr. Collins 
has since been twice triumphantly elected by such a 
flattering majority of votes as no chief magistrate of 
the city ever received before, whilst the man who be- 
trayed him is supposed to be politically dead for all 
future time. 

However, to be just to all'parties concerned, I really 
believe that these factional brawls of our race spring 
not from envy but from pride. Though the English 
writer, Thackeray, on his visit to Ireland got the im- 
pression that the Irish were too humble, being lack- 
ing in confidence, and self-assertiveness, nevertheless 
some individuals of our race are proud and ambitious 
enough. So I feel quite certain that no Irishman 
ever strikes down another because he envies him, but 
simply because, through a foolish pride, he imagines 
that himself is the better man and consequently more 
worthy of honor and position than his neighbor. 

Sometimes, too, Irish-Americans and Irish people 
who have been here for a long time give a very bad im- 
pression of the members of their own race by accusing 
them of envy without sufficient grounds. Because 
they happen to have been born here or to have become 
American citizens by naturalization, they seem to 
imagine that they are immeasurably above those who 
only recently emigrated from Ireland. If in the course 



212 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

of time they have seciired a good position or accum- 
ulated a little property, they suspect that the new ar- 
rivals must be envious of them. If they are in business 
and have a little store, each and everyone expects every 
Irishman to trade with him alone. Otherwise he con- 
cludes that they are jealous of him and refuse him their 
patronage for fear he might become too wealthy. But 
that is all the most ridiculous nonsense imaginable. 
As a general rule, the Irish people, wherever they may 
be, like everybody else, trade where they receive the 
best goods at the lowest price. Who can blame them 
for that ? Besides many of them are poor people and 
have only small purchases to make. So they prefer to 
go where they are not known at all in order that their 
neighbors may not know all about their business. 
Indeed, it is a well-known fact that some store-keepers 
foolishly gossip about the business of their customers. 
Consequently it is no wonder that some people prefer 
to trade with strangers rather than with their next- 
door neighbors, not from any ill-will or envy, however, 
but simply from motives of prudence. 

If Enghshmen were estimated by the same standard 
with which Irishmen are judged, how frequently we 
should find them guilty of the sin of envy! Irishmen 
are not the only ones who quarrel among themselves. 
EngUshmen, too, have had still greater intestine wars 
and civil dissensions, as we have seen in Part I., Chap- 
ter III. But it is not at all necessary to go back to 
ancient or mediaeval history in order to prove this; 
for have not English statesmen indulged in many petty 
wrangles and jealousies even in our own day? 



' ' THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 213 

Who has forgotten the famous split in the EngHsh 
Liberal Party a few years ago? If Chamberlain had 
been an Irishman then, he might have been accused of 
being envious of the late Mr. Gladstone, then Prime 
Minister of England. It would have been alleged that 
his object in withdrawing from his former associates 
and forming an independent party was to drive the 
''Grand Old Man" out of ofhce, so that himself might 
come into power at the head of a Unionist ministry. 

Indeed, if the late Tory leader, Lord Salsbury him- 
self had been an Irishman it would have been asserted 
that he was jealous for fear Chamberlain might suc- 
ceed him as Premier of England, so the wiley old Tory 
stole a march on the Colonial Secretary by taking ad- 
vantage of an accident which befell him, to resign 
from ofl&ce and have his own nephew, Mr. Balfour, 
appointed as his successor. Then the gossips would 
declare how bitterly Chamberlain resented this poli- 
tical strategem, how intensely envious of the new Prime 
Minister he was, and how, although feigning to be 
his greatest friend, he was in reahty only waiting for 
the very first opportunity to hiurl him from office and 
get his position himself. No doubt they would have 
considered their surmises completely justified when 
soon afterwards Chamberlain began agitating for the 
repeal of the old English system of Free Trade and 
the substitution of a Tariff like that of the United 
States. 

They would have interpreted this as a clever scheme 
of Chamberlain to disrupt the old Tory Party, as he 
formerly rent the Liberals, to cause the overthrow of 



214 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Balfour's ministry, and to start a popular movement 
which would land himself safely on the Premier's 
chair, on the crest of a great wave of national 
enthusiasm. 

Whether these conjectures of the wiseacres are true 
or false we are not prepared to say. If they are true, 
then Enghshmen are capable of being more envious 
of one another, in a subtle way, than any Irishman 
that ever lived. If they are false, may not Irishmen 
have been also falsely accused of envy in a similar 
manner? Both the Irish and the Enghsh, therefore, 
should be careful not to judge one another rashly, or 
without sufficient grounds, for rash judgment is like 
a two-edged sword, equally destructive to the fair 
name of the Celt and the Saxen. 



CHAPTER V. 

English Unscrupulousness. 

IF it were a hidden fault, or known only by a few, 
it would be uncharitable to discuss it, but as it 
is a public fact known all over the world, it is 
no harm to refer to what everybody knows, that Eng- 
land is the most critical and censorious nation in the 
whole universe. She has always some criticism to 
pass on every country under the sun. She sees some 
abuse to be corrected, some wrong to be righted, some 
evil to be reformed everywhere. At one time she is 
bewailing the intemperance and envy of the Irish 
people, at another time she is concerned with Russian 
barbarities in Siberia and Turkish atrocities in 
Armenia, later on she is endeavoring to remedy some 
evils existing in South Africa; and only a few years ago 
she resolved to put a stop to the lynching of Colored 
people in the United States, so that as the poet Kipling 
says: " She has had to bear more than her share of the 
'White Man's Burden.'" 

She certainly deserves great credit for her endeavors 
to ameHorate the condition of humanity, to spread 
the blessings of civilization and ''to light up the dark 
places of the earth." But for nothing does she merit 
more praise than for her effort to put an end to the 
savagery practised on the Negroes of the South. It is 
certainly high time that something should be done to 
prevent the diabolical practice of roasting alive any 



2i6 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

human being, whatever his color or whatever his crime, 
so that the brutal mulititude may enjoy the pleas- 
ure of seeing him writhing in agony in the midst of the 
flames and of hearing him howling piteously for mercy. 
Only the demons of hell could enjoy such pastime as 
that, and it is an eternal shame to a great nation like 
the United States to tolerate that which would not be 
permitted even in "darkest Africa." If the American 
Government will not stamp out at any cost this in- 
human practice, there is great danger that the wrath 
of God may fall upon it and blot it out from the face 
of the earth Hke Babylon of old. Then the colored 
people will be the masters where they are now worse 
than slaves, for, by the providence of God, no people 
were ever yet oppressed who did not finally rise supe- 
rior to their oppressors. I praise England for interven- 
ing in behalf of the poor down-trodden Colored people 
of the United States, but I condemn her for backing 
down just as soon as Uncle Sam told her to mind her 
own business. 

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that this critical, 
censorious, and meddlesome disposition of the English 
people stamps them immediately as a very proud, vain 
conceited, self-satisfied, race, as has been abundantly 
attested by many unquestionable proofs in previous 
chapters. The great pity is that England is so much 
taken up with the faults of her neighbor she has no 
time to consider her own faiUngs at all. Hence she 
imagines that all the other nations of the world are 
full of defects but she alone is perfect. Like the 
proud Pharisee of old strutting boldly into the temple, 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 217 

she lifts her head on high and says: "Thank God I am 
not like the rest of men." 

Yet there is no other nation on the face of the earth 
that has so many faults to be corrected and so many 
dark pages in her history to be ashamed of as this 
same self-conceited, self-sufficient England. If she 
would only pause for a few moments to examine her 
public conscience how many of God's holy command- 
ments would she discover that she has violated! 
"Thou shalt not kill" has no meaning for her, for how 
often has she sacrificed thousands of lives and shed 
torrents of blood in many an unjust war of criminal 
aggression! "Thou shalt not steal" has Hkewise no 
significance for her. She considers that this is a com- 
mandment intended for individuals but not for nations. 
In her blindness she seems to imagine that God has 
one code of morals for individuals but quite a different 
set for nations. Hence, according to English law, 
for the individual to steal a few pence is a crime to be 
punished by imprisonment, yet England herself steals 
whole nations and considers it no crime at all. "Thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods," she thinks is 
also a very wise regulation to govern the conduct of 
one citizen towards another, but when did England 
ever allow this commandment to stand in her way 
whenever she wished to get possession of an island or 
a country anywhere in the whole world ? 

But probably there is no precept of the whole dec- 
alogue which England so egregiously violates as the 
eighth commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbor." 



2i8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON "^ 

From time immemorial as soon as England set her 
covetous eyes on any territory or country which she 
wished to seize she immediately commenced a sys- 
tematic defamation of the character of the inhabitants. 
An excellent example of this was recently afforded 
when the English wanted to get possession of the 
diamond fields of the Transvaal. The whole British 
press teemed with wholesale libels against the poor 
Boers. They were described as a rude, savage people 
who should be wiped off the face of the earth. The 
object of this was to withdraw from them the moral 
support of mankind and to arouse against them the 
hostiUty of the whole human race. England strove 
to array even the Irish against them by pubUshing 
broadcast how hostile the Boers were to the Catholic 
Church. Yet this has been exactly the way that Eng- 
land has been treating poor Erin herself during the 
last seven hundred years. 

The history of Ireland written by English historians 
is nothing more or less than a base caricature, and 
they have painted poor Ireland in such dark colors 
that she would not be recognized by her best friends. 
But when the history of Ireland is re- written, divested 
of the black robe of calumny which enshrouds her, 
and clothed in the bright garb of truth, she will ap- 
pear as a beautiful queen with an immaculate robe, 
such as her poets are fond of describing her. 

How strange that a nation like England, which 
claims to be Christian, should thus systematically 
violate so many commandments of God without ap- 
parently the least scruple of conscience! But, if the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 219 

truth must be told, the fact is that since the Reform- 
ation, in the sixteenth century, England has been 
Christian only in name. Before that, the Catholic 
Church and the Popes put some check on the excesses 
of the nation, but since then there has been no restraint 
on her whatever. Accordingly, during the last three 
centuries, England has been the most unscrupulous 
country in the world. She has acted as if the only 
commandment of God was: "Get rich and accu- 
mulate wealth." In fact she seems to have forgotten 
God entirely, and to have set up as a Deity in His 
place material prosperity and lust of empire, as the 
Israehtes of old worshipped the golden calf in the 
desert. But worst of all, England has stopped at 
nothing, whether fair means or foul, in order to ac- 
comphsh her designs. If we were to trace out the 
various steps by which she has built up her vast em- 
pire during the past three hundred years, we should 
be overwhelmed by one continual story of the most 
unblushing hypocrisy, the vilest perfidy, the most 
shocking conspiracy, and the most impious sacrilege. 
A certain poet has said that 

"For ways that are dark 
And tricks that are vain 
The heathen Chinee is pecuKar." 

However, this is far more true of the English than of 
the Chinese. England is the most hypocritical nation 
on the face of the earth. The most superficial knowl- 
edge of her history will show how in getting possession 



220 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

of her vast empire, one fragment after another, this 
consummate hypocrite never yet acknowledged before- 
hand that she was bent on foreign conquest. Oh! 
no. That might arouse against her the sentiment of 
humanity. So she was always careful first to invent 
some plausible excuse to cover up her robbery. She 
usually pretended that her object was to reform some 
abuse, to stop the civil dissensions of the natives, or 
to spread the light of civilization and the blessings of 
Christianity. 

It was thus that she took possession of Ireland and 
India. So, in a similar manner she lately seized upon 
the Transvaal, under the pretext of redressing the 
grievances of her subjects who resided there. Just 
now, in the very midst of a peace congress in this coun- 
try she is anxious to discuss some alleged cruelties of 
Belgium towards the Negroes of the Congo. It would 
be safe to wager ten to one that England has her cove- 
tous eye also on that country. What consummate hypo- 
crites and knaves these English people are ! Nobody 
but an Englishman could fill the role of Uriah Heap, 
so well portrayed by Dickens in "David Copperfield." 
Hypocrisy seems to come naturally to the English. 
Even Henry VIII., that monster incarnate, tried to 
cloak over his sensuality under the guise of religious 
scruples. It is also a matter of history how "good 
Queen Bess," as the English call her, signed the death- 
warrant of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, yet after- 
wards raised her hands to heaven, calling God to wit- 
ness that she had never ordered her execution. But 
the greatest hypocrite of all was Cromwell, with the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 221 

sword in one hand, the Bible in the other, and prayers 
on his Hps as he was slaughtering in cold blood the 
defenceless women and helpless babies in Ireland. 

A great many changes have occurred since then, but 
England is to-day the same old hypocrite as ever. 
Everybody knows that it was she who instigated the 
war in the East betv/een Japan and Russia, and now, 
whilst the advantage is in favor of her ally, she would 
like to bind her rival's hands, so as to keep them off 
India. So she has just sent out to the XJnited States 
her messengers and holy men to appeal to the tender 
spot in Uncle Sam's heart to stop the cruel war in the 
East, because poor, sensitive England is horrified at 
the shedding of so much innocent blood. But why 
did she not send her peace messengers out here whilst 
she was making war on the Boers, or still more recently 
on the peaceful inhabitants of Thibet ? If the crafty 
hypocrite could only now inveigle the United States 
into a treaty of arbitration mth her, which she could 
use as a sort of club over the head of Russia in the 
East, England would be quite happy. She would 
represent to all the nations of Europe that she had 
entered into an alliance with the great American Re- 
public, and she would become more brazen than ever 
in her evil ways. 

Not only did England employ the most consummate 
hypocrisy in the accomplishment of her designs, but 
likewise the most despicable perfidy, in the violation 
of her most solemn treaties. In all ages, even in 
Pagan times, all nations have regarded a treaty as 
something sacred and inviolable. No greater reproach 



222 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

could be heaped upon any country than to taunt it 
with the least infraction of a treaty. 'Tunica fides" 
was the most shameful epithet which the Romans 
could hurl at the Carthaginians of old for their alleged 
breach of faith. But what was that to the perfidy 
of England towards Ireland? She has broken faith 
with our Irish forefathers more than once. In order to 
put an end to the rebellion of the Irish under Hugh 
O 'Neil, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, England was 
obliged to guarantee by treaty to the Irish chieftains the 
full and free possession of all their lands and estates. 
But a Httle thing like a treaty was not to stand in the 
way of England. Nevertheless, she did not wish to 
incur the odium of breaking it. So, soon after the 
Irish had laid down their arms, the English Govern- 
ment trumped up against the Irish chiefs a charge of 
conspiracy and high treason, in which an anonymous 
letter figured very prominently. Realizing that their 
doom was sealed, the gallant O'Neil and other Irish 
chieftains fled to the continent — the very thing which 
the EngUsh wanted. After their departure the British 
Government confiscated their estates and parceled 
them out among greedy English adventurers. 

But still more flagrant was the violation by England 
of the Treaty of Limerick, negotiated with the Irish 
during the reign of William of Orange. This also 
guaranteed to our ancestors the full possession of 
their property. However, just after the articles of 
capitulation had been signed, but before the Irish had 
laid down their arms, a large French fleet laden with 
men, arms, and ammunition sailed up the Shannon 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 223 

to the relief of our forefathers. The English General 
was now filled with the greatest alarm lest the Irish 
might disregard the terms of the treaty and again fly 
to arms. But the Irish leader, Patrick Sarsfield, 
said: ''No! Our faith is pHghted. Though a hun- 
dred thousand Frenchmen came to our assistance 
we cannot break our word now." So the gallant 
Irish commander and his army surrendered accord- 
ing to their agreement; but rather than remain 
under English tyranny they sailed away on the fleet 
which had come to succor them, and enlisted in the 
service of the King of France. 

However, it was not the Irish but the EngHsh that 
were to break this solemn compact. Scarcely had 
the Irish warriors taken their departure when Eng- 
land shamefully violated the Treaty of Limerick, as 
the Irish chronicles say: "before the ink wherewith 
'twas writ was dry." But some years afterwards, 
whilst England was at war with France, these Irish 
exiles made the English pay dearly for their perfidy, 
when they defeated them at the battle of Fontenoy; 
and as the Irish brigade came thundering down 
upon the English army, their battle-cry was: ''Re- 
member Limerick and the broken treaty!" 

What wonder that the Irish people have ever 
since distrusted England even to the present day! 
What wonder that there is a proverb in Ireland 
which says: "Beware of the smile of an Englishman 
as you would of the snarl of a dog!" Well-disposed 
EngHshmen of the present day are sometimes astonish- 
ed that the Irish people look on them with such an evil 



224 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

eye. But there is a cause for everything. So all this 
distrust and suspicion on the part of the Irish towards 
England is due to her unpardonable violation of the 
most solemn treaties in the past. 

Not merely has England shown her unscrupulous- 
ness by the most unblushing perfidy towards the Irish, 
but also by the blackest and foulest conspiracies ever 
concocted by man since Judas betrayed his Master. 
Just because on one occasion an English Catholic, 
driven to desperation by persecution, resolved to blow 
up the English House of Parhament, whenever after- 
wards any EngHsh adventurers wished to get posses- 
sion of some fertile lands in Ireland, they simply raised 
a great hue and cry about an alleged "Terrible Popish 
Massacre of the Enghsh Colonists in Ireland by their 
Celtic Neighbors." Straightway the whole public 
opinion of England was lashed into a dreadful fury 
by these tidings, an Enghsh army was despatched 
immediately into Ireland to avenge the supposed mass- 
acre, and before the truth was discovered, torrents 
of innocent Irish blood were shed. After the carnage 
was over the vile conspirators who had concocted the 
whole scheme, came over quietly from England and 
took possession of the rich Irish estates whose owners 
had fallen victims to their plot. 

The first of these diabolical conspiracies was con- 
cocted during the reign of King Charles I., and it 
brought upon Ireland all the butcheries of Crom- 
well, along with the confiscation of three-fourths of the 
whole island for the plunder of his Puritan followers. 
The second conspiracy was the direct result of the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 225 

first. At the restoration of King Charles II., the 
Cromwellians were seized with a mortal terror lest 
he might compel them to restore their plundered Irish 
estates to their lawful Irish owners. To prevent such 
a calamity they employed an infamous wretch called 
Titus Oates to fabricate the story of another great 
Popish massacre of Protestants in Ireland. Strange 
to say, the EngUsh, who boast of being so cool-headed 
and shrewd, had learned nothing from the imposition 
already practiced upon them by the story of the first 
massacre. They became now more furious than ever 
and once more shed torfents of innocent Irish blood. 
But, most disgraceful of all was the execution of the 
saintly Archbishop Plunkett, Primate of Ireland, a 
man highly respected even by many Irish Protestants. 
Though entirely guiltless even of the very shadow of a 
crime, he became a victim to English popular fury and 
was legally murdered by being hanged, beheaded, 
quartered, and disemboweled amidst the yells of the 
London populace, July i, 1681. Even Englishmen 
themselves are now thoroughly ashamed of this dis- 
graceful proceeding and the great English historian, 
Charles James Fox, declared that ''The Popish plot 
story must always be considered an indelible disgrace 
on the English nation." However, what did the con- 
spirators care about the shedding of innocent blood 
and the murder of the noble and true! They had 
gained their point, being allowed to remain in posses- 
sion of their ill-gotten goods. So they and their de- 
scendants have ever since been recognized as the 
Landlords of Ireland, whilst the original owners of 



226 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

the soil were reduced to the condition of menials aiKi 
serfs. Indeed the Land Purchase Act recently enacted 
in the British ParHament, and so ostentatiously pa- 
raded as a special favor from the English Government, 
is nothing more or less than a cool proposition from 
the Enghsh robber to sell back to the original Irish 
owners the very identical property which he once stole 
from them. That very property they are now ex- 
pected to buy back with interest, in twenty annual 
payments. Can we imagine any transaction more 
unscrupulous than this? 

Yet the crowning proof of English unscrupulous- 
ness was exhibited in this Western Continent a few 
centuries ago, and that was indeed the worst specimen 
of falsehood, deceit, dupUcity, dissimulation, treach- 
ery and horrid sacrilege that the world has ever seen. 
In all ages, religious edifices have been looked upon 
as something sacred, holy, and inviolable. Even in 
Pagan times, the man who took refuge in a heathen 
temple was safe from all his pmrsuers. But it was the 
CathoUc Church which brought this noblest institu- 
tion of Paganism to perfection. Accordingly, every 
Christian Church became a sanctuary of refuge for 
the down- trodden and the oppressed of all nations. 
Within its sacred precincts no tyrant dared to lay a 
violent hand. Tyranny stood helpless at the door. 
But it was reserved for unscrupulous England to set 
a contrary example of profanation and sacrilege for 
which the world has no parallel. 

A few centuries ago, there lived in what is now 
called Nova Scotia, a settlement of French colonists, 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 227 

called Acadians. They were peaceful, honest, and 
industrious, loyal to God and to France, attending 
strictly to business and harming nobody. Their only 
crime was that they refused to swear allegiance to 
England. So, on a certain day, the English Gov- 
ernor, who had taken possession of the colony in the 
name of England, summoned all the inhabitants, who 
were devout CathoHcs into the Catholic church, to 
hear a royal proclamation. But no sooner had they 
entered the sacred edifice than it was surrounded by 
English soldiers and all the people were declared 
prisoners. Then husbands were separated from their 
wives, brothers from their sisters, parents from their 
children, and scattered all over what is now the 
United States. Many of them spent a whole Kfe-time 
seeking to be reunited with those who were dear to 
them, and who can tell how many broken hearts were 
the consequence? Longfellow's beautiful poem, 
of Evangeline, is founded on that sad event. Nobody 
can read these sublime verses without a strong feeling 
of righteous indignation against perfidious, treach- 
erous, sacrilegious England, which did not scruple to 
use even the Church as a cloak for her nefarious de- 
signs. 

What chance has a conscientious nation like Ireland 
to compete with such an unscrupulous foe? If a 
prize were to be awarded for proficiency in unscrup- 
ulousness, England would easily carry off the palm. 
Ireland would appear at a great disadvantage beside 
her. The great trouble with poor Ireland has always 
been that she was too conscientious. While the Eng- 



228 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

lish have been waging unjust wars and slaughtering 
people by the thousands during the last fifteen cent- 
uries at least, the Irish people have never lifted the 
sword except in self-defence or for the recovery of their 
independence. In private life, it is very seldom that 
they seek to be revenged even on those who have most 
grievously wronged them. How frequently do we 
not hear good, old Irish people say: "Leave them to 
God." Whilst the Enghsh would not scruple to seize 
upon the whole world, the Irish people covet no man's 
property, they seek for nothing but their own inalien- 
able God-given rights — life, liberty, and happiness. 
Indeed, it is a matter of history that during the dread- 
ful famine of 1847, the Irish peasants would not steal 
even a loaf of bread to save themselves from starvation, 
although it is always perfectly legitimate to appropriate 
whatever is necessary to preserve one's life. 

What is the cause of this wonderful disparity in the 
principles and conduct of these two neighboring races ? 
It is all summed up in one word — rehgion. The 
Irish are an extremely religious people and have always 
preserved the true faith taught them by their glorious 
Apostle, St. Patrick. That is why they possess such 
an extraordinarily delicate conscience. That is why 
they scruple to do wrong. That is frequently the 
reason why they do not succeed better in business, 
because they are so honest. 

On the other hand, that England might not be im- 
peded by the wholesome restraints of the true religion, 
she cast off entirely all allegiance to the Catholic 
Church, in the sixteenth century. Poor, deluded 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 229 

Englishmen imagined that this was a revolt only 
against the Pope, but in reality it was the rebellion 
against Almighty God Himself foretold centuries pre- 
viously by the royal prophet in Ps. II.-2 : "The kings of 
the earth stood up and the princes met together against 
the Lord and against His Christ, (saying) 'Let us 
break their bonds asunder and let us cast away their 
yoke from us.'" Thanks be to God, Ireland had no 
part in this uprising against the Most High. So in 
the following chapter we shall speak more at length 
of "the ever faithful isle and the land of infidelity." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Ever-Faithful Isle and the Land of 
Infidelity. 

WE should have only a very imperfect idea, in- 
deed, of the lofty character of the Irish people 
if we v^^ere to omit a description of their un- 
swerving devotion to their religion and to God. Fidel- 
ity is considered one of the highest of natural virtues, 
and is highly prized everywhere in the dealings of man 
with his fellow-men. Where is the good, faithful ser- 
vant who is not duly appreciated by his grateful 
master? Where is the public official whose invincible 
hdelity to duty is not applauded by his constituents? 
But if thus we regard the fidelity of men towards their 
fellow-creatures, what should we think of the incom- 
parable fidelity of a whole race to Almighty God 
Himself ? 

But never yet has this earth witnessed a race more 
faithful to their holy religion and to God than the Irish 
})eople have been for the last fifteen hundred years. 
Vor fifteen centuries they have been always faithful 
to the teachings of their glorious Apostle, St. Patrick, 
and have always preserved the faith which he be- 
queathed to them pure and uncorru{)ted. If St. 
Patrick were to rise from the dead to-day and revisit his 
spiritual children, he would find them professing the 
very self-same doctrines which he taught them in the 
fifth century. This unparalleled fidelity to their re- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 



251 



ligion and their God is the glory and crown of our 
race. It is their proud boast that no heresy and no 
schism can claim Ireland as the land of their birth, 
and no Irishman was ever a heresiarch, or founder 
of a heretical sect. Even France, "the eldest daughter 
of the Church" has had her heresy called Jansenism, 
after Jansenius, its author, but Ireland never. It is 
quite true, the EngHsh sometimes claim that Pelagius, 
one of the heretics of the fifth century, was of Irish 
birth, but there is the most overwhelming evidence 
that he was a native of Britain. 

Not only has Ireland been ever faithful to her holy 
religion, but also ever loyal to the See of Peter. As we 
glance down through the ages over the pages of history, 
we find that Ireland never had any serious difference 
with the Church of Rome. She never had but one 
small controversy with the Apostohc See, and that was 
over the proper time for celebrating Easter. But this 
was rather a matter of discipHne than of faith, and 
indeed more of an astronomical calculation than either. 
In fact the Church itself was for some time divided on 
that question, some Christians following the custom 
of St. John, others that of St. Peter and St. Paul. But 
all Christians, the Irish included, finally adopted the 
usage of the Church of Rome, and ever since our race 
has always been the vanguard of the faith. 

England, Hkewise, received the true faith from the 
very same source as Ireland, being evangelized by St. 
Augustine, a missionary sent from Rome by Pope 
Gregory the Great, in the sixth century. Though the 
English never displayed half the fidelity manifested 



232 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

by the Irish to their holy rehgion, to give our Anglo- 
Saxon cousins their due, we must acknowledge that 
they persevered in the faith for about a thousand years, 
until in the sixteenth century they ignobly surrendered 
their Christian heritage at the dictation of that impious 
tyrant, King Henry VIII. 

Superficial observers might imagine that the Eng- 
lish Reformation was a great religious revolution sud- 
denly effected by the mere arbitrary will of a sensual 
monarch, but a closer examination will convince any- 
one that the seeds of that great apostacy had been 
planted long before. As long as England was a poor, 
weak, second-rate power she remained loyal to the 
true faith and was known throughout Europe as the 
"Dowry of Mary." But with the arrival of the Nor- 
mans many new elements were infused into the Eng- 
lish character that were very deleterious to the faith. 

The Normans, having conquered the Saxons, were 
a very proud, haughty, and self-sufficient race. But 
what room is there in a proud heart for the religion 
of the lowly Nazarene, Who had not a place whereon 
to lay His head and Whose fundamental doctrine was : 
"Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart." 
The most superficial study must convince anyone that 
there is much in the EngHsh character totally at var- 
iance with Our Divine Saviour's teachings- He 
taught His followers to humble themselves, and be- 
come as Httle children, but how incompatible is this 
with English deceit, perfidy, hypocrisy, and unscrupu- 
lousness described in the previous chapter! 
Moreover, Our Blessed Redeemer commanded His 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 233 

disciples to practice self-denial, saying: "If any man 
will come after Me let him deny himself; for he that 
will not deny himself cannot be My disciple." But 
how completely opposed to this is the grasping avaric- 
ious spirit of the English! When did the EngHsh 
people ever deny themselves anything? Would they 
not take possession of the whole world if they could ? 
Just as soon as they set their covetous eyes on any- 
thing do they not resort to the blackest conspiracy in 
order to attain it, even though thereby they should 
defame the character of a whole race or shed a torrent 
of innocent blood? What does it all matter if they 
only accomplish their designs? 

It is very evident, therefore, that English character 
is a very poor foundation on which to erect the mag- 
nificent edifice of the true faith. Religion Uke a house, 
needs a foundation on which to rest. If a building 
has not a good, firm foundation, it comes tumbling 
down upon the heads of its occupants. So the super- 
natural virtues must be built upon the natural, and 
faith must be well-grounded upon humility. Other- 
wise it will sooner or later fall to the ground, for humil- 
ity is the very foundation of all religion and of all vir- 
tue. There is no doubt whatsoever that this is the 
real secret why the English people lost the faith in the 
sixteenth century. It was primarily on account of 
their pride. Just as God punished the rebel angels for 
this deadly sin, so for a similar reason He took away the 
gift of faith entirely from the whole EngHsh race. If 
they had been worthy of that heavenly gift, Henry VIII. 
would never have been able to filch it away from them. 



234 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

On the other hand, the Lord still preserves the faith 
in the hearts of the Irish people as a reward for their 
humility. It is true, our race is sometimes accused of 
pride but it is generally in the best sense of that word, 
as the synonyme of self-respect. In reality the Irish 
people are the humblest race in the world. The great 
EngHsh writer, Thackeray, in his Irish Sketch Book, 
marvels at their humility and relates how in travelling 
through Ireland the natives frequently asked him how 
he liked their country and how pleased they were 
when he replied in the affirmative, "as if" he says, 
"you — because an Englishman — must be somebody, 
and they only the dust of the earth." 

What wonder that the faith of the Irish people is so 
enduring, when it is built on the virtue of true humility ! 
It is hke the house mentioned in the gospel which the 
wise man built upon a rock. "And the storms came, 
and the mnds blew, and beat upon that house, and it 
fell not, because it was built upon a rock." But the 
Catholic faith of the English was like the house built 
by the fool upon the sands. "And the storms came, 
and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it 
fell, and great was the fall thereof." 

But even though CathoHcity in England rested on 
such an unstable foundation, there was hardly an 
Enghsh king from William the Conqueror down to 
Henry VIII. who did not do something during his 
reign to undermine its tottering basis. Scarcely were 
the Norman sovereigns firmly seated on the throne of 
England when they commenced to interfere with the 
freedom of the Church and to impede it in the exercise 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 235 

•f its sacred functions. They all wanted to control 
the Church as well as the State. It seemed as if their 
ambition was to be Pope and King at the same time. 
They were constantly meddling, especially in the elec- 
tion of bishops, and more than once endeavored to 
force one of their own unworthy favorites upon the 
Church. They sometimes went even so far as to 
keep a See vacant for a long time after the death of a 
bishop so that themselves might receive the diocesan 
revenues. All these things naturally brought them 
frequently into collision with the Popes, who were 
determined to maintain the rights and freedom of the 
Church at any cost. Accordingly, on one occasion, 
Pope Innocent III. had to excommunicate King John 
and place his kingdom under interdict for his inter- 
ference in the election of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury. At another time. King Henry II. was threat- 
ened with the anathemas of the Church for having 
by his intemperate language caused the death of St. 
Thomas a Becket. 

This continual clash between Church and State 
created a very bitter feeling in England and paved the 
way for the Reformation in the sixteenth century. 
When a fine, stately mansion falls down during a storm 
many people express their astonishment that what ap- 
peared to be such a strong, substantial edifice should 
yield to such a shght cause. But keener observers 
might perceive that for a long time previous the floods 
had been undermining the foundation of that splendid 
structure, until finally some unusual pressure caused 
the whole building to collapse. It was thus that Eng- 



236 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

land fell away from the faith in the sixteenth century. 
During the previous centuries the process of under- 
mining the faith of the English people was carried 
steadily on by their rulers. Yet all that time England 
appeared to be a splendid tower of Christianity. Only 
just before the Reformation broke out in England, the 
Pope himself bestowed on the Enghsh king, Henry 
WII., the title of "Defender of the Faith," when all at 
once the crash came hke Hghtning from a clear sky. 
England first fell into schism, next into apostacy, and 
then into infidelity, as Lucifer, hke a falling star, fell 
down from heaven into the dreadful abyss of hell. 

The fatal day had come at last. The "Defender 
of the Faith" after living with his lawful wife, Cath- 
arine of Arragon, for twenty years, set his lustful 
eyes upon her beautiful servant maid, Anne Boleyn. 
So the hypocritical monarch immediately pretended 
to have conscientious scruples about the validity of 
his first marriage, and appUed to the Pope for its an- 
nulment. What would not the sovereign Pontiff re- 
ceive if he would only gratify the king's wishes ? All 
the treasures of England would be lavished on him 
with a royal hand. But what would be the result if 
the tyrant's request should be refused? Then Eng- 
land might rush into the arms of the German reformers 
and the whole kingdom lost to the CathoHc Church. 
Yet, to his everlasting honor, the Pope preferred to see 
a whole nation lost to him rather than do wrong, or 
sacrifice the rights of a sohtary, helpless woman. 

"Your majesty," said he in his message to Henry 
VIII., "if I had two souls I might sacrifice one for 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 237 

your sake, but as I have only one I must endeavor to 
save that." So he refused to grant the divorce which 
King Henry asked for. 

However, Uke a true EngHshman, totally unscrupu- 
lous about the means of accomplishing his designs, 
the English monarch was not to be frustrated in his 
purpose. So he determined to push the Pope aside, 
to become Pope himself, and then he could grant him- 
self as many divorces as he wished and take as many 
wives as he pleased. He therefore cast off all alle- 
giance to the Pope entirely, and under the severest 
penalty commanded all his subjects to follow his ex- 
ample. What can we think of the manhood of the 
English people when the great majority of them bowed 
down before his imperious commands? Yet, to the 
honor of EngUshmen, it must be acknowledged that 
all of them did not tamely submit to the dictates of 
the impious tyrant. Some of them rose in rebellion 
against his bold innovations, and in defence of their 
holy faith. But he put down the insurrection with 
relentless cruelty and forty thousand Englishmen 
suffered death as traitors during his reign, for opposing 
his royal wishes. Besides, he caused the learned 
Bishop Fisher and the saintly Thomas More, two of 
the grandest characters that the world has ever seen, 
to be cruelly beheaded for opposing his divorce from 
Catharine of Arragon. Moreover, he had Father 
Forest, confessor to Queen Catharine, barbarously 
burned at the stake for denying his spiritual suprem- 
acy over the English nation. Thus he imposed his 
despotic will upon his Anglo-Saxon subjects. 



2^ THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

King Henry VIII. now turned his attention to Ire- 
land and did his utmost to introduce the Reformation 
into that country, but his attempt was a woful failure. 
Despite all his threats, bribes, flattery, promises of 
wealth, honors, and distinctions, not a baker's dozen 
of the Irish people turned perverts and the great 
bulk of them remained loyal to the faith of their 
forefathers. 

During the reign of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth, 
a still more desperate effort was made to rob the Irish 
people of their faith. All Catholic Churches, colleges, 
and seminaries were closed. Cathohc education was 
proscribed throughout the whole island. Priests were 
forbidden to celebrate Mass under the penalty of six 
months' imprisonment for the first, five years for the 
second, and life-long incarceration for the third 
offence. Laymen for assisting at Mass were imprison- 
ed for one year for the first offence and for life for the 
second offence. 

The persecutions waged against the faith of the 
Irish people by the "good Queen Bess" were the most 
atrocious that the world has ever seen since the days 
of the Pharaohs. At the present day, Englishmen of 
refinement affect to shudder at the horrors of the Span- 
ish Inquisition, but what was that in comparison with 
the English Inquisition established in Ireland by 
Queen Elizabeth! If only the walls of Dublin Castle 
and of the Tower of London could speak, what a tale 
of barbarity they would relate beside which the atroc- 
ities of the Spanish Inquisition dwindle into insignifi- 
cance! A detailed account of these horrible tortures 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON »S9 

would make one's blood mn cold. Two instances 
may be cited as an illustration. 

In the year 1583, Archbishop O'Herlihy, of Cashel, 
was tied to a stake and his body covered with pitch, 
oil, salt, and sulphur, after which a slow fire was started 
and managed with such barbaric skill and civilized 
cruelty that the victim was made to endure this in- 
human torture for hours without being permitted to 
expire. He was then cast into prison, but only to be 
brought out the next day and strangled on the rack. 

Another CathoHc martyr, Bishop O'Hely, of Mayo, 
was in the year 1578, stretched on a rack, his hands 
and feet broken with hammers, large needles driven 
violently under his nails, and after enduring these 
barbarities for some time, was taken from the rack 
and hung from the limb of a neighboring tree. 

How many Irish Catholics suffered death for the 
faith at this period will never be known till the last 
great judgment day. In all probabihty the number 
must have reached up to hundreds of thousands and 
perhaps milHons. English historians themselves tell 
us that Queen Elizabeth let loose upon the Irish people 
a greedy band of English adventurers, who not only 
robbed them and plundered their churches, but also 
shed the blood of bishops, priests, and people in tor- 
rents, so that at one time a traveller might go for twenty 
miles through the country without hearing so much as 
the whistle of a plough-boy or seeing the face of a liv- 
ing man. But the trenches and ditches were filled 
with the corpses of the people and the land was re- 
duced to a desolate wilderness. Even one of Queen 



240 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Elizabeth's deputies, Sir Henry Sidney, assures us 
that: "Such horrible spectacles are to be beheld, as the 
burning of \illages, the ruin of towns, yea, the view of 
the bones and skulls of the dead, who partly by murder 
and partly by famine have died in the fields. It is 
such as hardly any Christian can behold with a dry 
eye." Yet, despite all these frightful persecutions, 
Queen Elizabeth went down to her grave having the 
mortification to know that her attempt to extirpate 
the CathoKc reHgion in Ireland had been entirely in 
vain, for the remnant of the Irish people who survived 
her clung as tenaciously as ever to the true faith. 

But dreadful as was the persecution of the Irish by 
Queen Elizabeth, it was nothing in comparison wdth 
that of Cromwell. Despairing of being able to over- 
throw the Catholic faith in Ireland by any other means, 
he resolved to extirpate the whole Irish race, and gave 
orders to his soldiers to give no quarter, but to slay 
man, woman, and child, as Joshua slew the Canaanites 
of old. Accordingly, the soil of Ireland soon was red 
with blood; there was a dreadful massacre of two 
thousand Irish CathoHcs at Wexford and three thou- 
sand more at Drogheda, one thousand of whom were 
butchered whilst kneeHng in prayer before the altar. 
In other parts of the island there were massacres equal- 
ly ferocious. In some places the houses were set on 
fire and the inhabitants roasted to death in their own 
homes. Others were roasted to death over a slow fire. 
Even the httle babes in their mother's arms were not 
spared. Sometimes the barbarous soldiers transfixed 
them with a spear upon their mother's breast. On 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 241 

other occasions they knocked their little heads against 
the wall and dashed out their brains. 

So dreadful was this persecution that the popula- 
tion of Ireland was reduced from i ,466,000 to 500,000. 
Those who survived the butcheries of Cromwell, were 
given the alternative of renouncing the Catholic relig- 
ion and embracing the Protestant faith or of surrender- 
ing all their property and deporting themselves to a 
barren reservation in the Province of Connaught, 
where it was hoped the Irish race would soon become 
extinct from hunger ai>d privation. Yet, almost to a 
man, our heroic ancestors abandoned their houses, 
their goods, their revenues, and their wealth, choosing 
rather to be afflicted with the people of God on the 
mountain side, and in the caverns of the earth, in 
hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, rather than 
prove faithless to their holy religion. 

But it was especially against the clergy that the rage 
of the persecutors was directed. They well knew the 
truth of the proverb: ''Strike the shepherd and the 
sheep will scatter." Accordingly, they offered the 
same reward for the head of a priest as for the head 
of a wolf. Anyone who knew where a priest was con- 
cealed and did not betray him was considered a traitor. 
He was cast into prison, flogged through the streets, 
and had his ears cut off. But the person who would 
dare to harbor a priest was himself put to death. 

Nevertheless, the priests, even in these trying times, 
did not abandon their flocks. Disguised as farmers 
and laborers, they continued to minister to their 
people during the darkness of night, and to celebrate 



24'2 THE CELT ABOVE THE SA XON 

for them the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in some lonely 
glen, or in the depth of the forest. But even then their 
steps were frequently tracked by English spies and 
the faithful priest was often slain at the very altar. 
Three hundred Irish clergymen laid down their lives 
for the faith during the persecution of Cromwell and 
the barbarities inflicted on most of them were simply 
indescribable. One of these heroic martyrs, the Rev. 
Daniel Delany, was stripped naked and tied to a 
horse's tail, then the animal was driven at full speed 
over a road covered with brambles and thickets, and 
rough with frost, until his body was all mangled, and 
he was covered all over with blood. Though now 
one mass of bruises, and almost half dead, he was de- 
livered up for further tortures to a guard of soldiers, 
who amused themselves by cruelly beating him with 
clubs as he lay naked on the frozen ground, during a 
long, sleepless night. Next day he was three different 
times hanged to the bough of a tree and as often let 
down to the ground, in order to protract the agony o 
his torture, but finally he was strangled with a rope, 
and thus ended his fife of suffering on earth to reign 
triumphant in heaven. 

Another holy priest, Rev. Peter O'Higgins, was 
sentenced to death for the faith in the City of Dublin, 
in 1 64 1. The very morning fixed for his execution 
he received word that if he only renounced the Cath- 
olic faith and become a Protestant, not only would 
his life be spared, but he would be granted many great 
privileges. In reply he desired that these proposals 
should be made to him in writing, Mjader the signature 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 24,3 

of 'the judges who had condemned him to death. He 
likewise requested that they should be handed to him 
in sight of the gibbet. His wishes were complied 
with, and, as he mounted the first step of the scaffold, 
the executioner placed in his hand the document con- 
taining his pardon on the aforesaid condition. But the 
intrepid martyr, standing on the scaffold, held up be- 
fore the multitude that had assembled, the pardon 
that he had received on condition of renouncing his 
religion, showing conclusively that he was condemned 
for no crime, but was about to die for his faith. Then 
casting the document containing his pardon, with the 
autograph of the judges, into the crowd, he heroically 
gave up his soul to God. 

Similar instances of heroism on the part of other 
Irish priests might be multiplied indefinitely, but we 
shall not weary the reader with the harrowing details 
of these frightful persecutions. If any one is desirous 
to get a further knowledge of the sufferings which our 
ancestors endured for the faith, he will find a most 
graphic exposition of the subject in a little work en- 
titled: "Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of 
Ireland under the Rule of Cromwell and the Puri- 
tans," by the Rev. Patrick Moran. 

Not only has poor Ireland suffered the most fright- 
ful persecutions for the faith, but in a land naturally 
flowing with milk and honey, she has had to endure 
the awful horror of famine as the result of English 
misgovernment. Many of those who are now living 
remember the terrible famine of 1847, when little 
children in their mother's arms cried for bread and 



■244 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

there was none to give them, and strong men by the 
hundreds died of starvation by the roadside. A single 
word renouncing their holy faith would have brought 
them food in abundance for themselves and their fam- 
ilies, but they preferred death itself, aye, the slow, 
lingering death of starvation, rather than the dishonor 
of proving unfaithful to God. So, notwithstanding 
persecution, famine, and afflictions of all kinds, Ire- 
land is to-day, as she has always been, the ever-faithful 
isle. 

In the meantime, England had made great progress 
in material prosperity, and had extended her empire 
all over the world, but she had gone from bad to worse 
in the sight of God. Henry VIII. had plunged the 
kingdom into schism when he renounced all allegiance 
to the Pope in matters of faith, yet that brutal mon- 
arch to the last day of his life beheved every doctrine 
of the CathoUc Church, and in those days every Eng- 
lishman had to think like his sovereign or take the 
consequences. But in the reign of his son and suc- 
cessor, Edward VI., England fell into positive heresy, 
denied the doctrine of the Real Presence, and abol- 
ished the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For a few years 
the Catholic religion was restored by Queen Mary, 
but Elizabeth, at her accession, plunged the country 
deeper than ever into the mire of apostacy. Ever 
since England has been drifting from one error to 
another, until in our own day many of her leading 
scholars, like the late Huxley and Tyndall, have be- 
come Agnostics, that is men who do not affirm or 
deny the existence of God, but simply say that they 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 245 

do not know whether there is a Supreme Being or not. 
But sadder still — there are thousands, tens of thou- 
sands, aye millions, of Englishmen, who have no faith 
at all. An EngHsh writer, by the name of Conybeare, 
assures us that the mechanics and laborers of England 
have, to a fearful extent, renounced all belief in Chris- 
tianity, and that there are five millions of people in 
Britain who have no religion at all. 

Still more startling is the testimony of the Rev. T. 
Hugo, in the Church Times, Oct. 13, 1876: 

"The masses in Lancashire and of London were as 
heathen as those of whom St. Paul drew a picture in 
immortal though dreadful colors. He knew the 
mobs of London and Lancashire well and he gave it 
on his word of honor as a Christian priest that there 
was no difference between them and the people whom 
St. Paul portrayed." 

The English Quarterly Review, of April, 1861, also 
informs us that ''there are in London whole streets 
within easy walk of Charing Cross and miles and 
miles in more obscure places, w^here the people live 
Hterally without God in the world. We could name 
entire quarters where the very shop-keepers make a 
profession of atheism and encourage their poor cus- 
tomers to do the same." 

Even so recently as January, 1880, the Protestant 
Bishop of Rochester preaching a sermon in the Royal 
Chapel, St. James', said: 

''I lament the brutal ignorance of all that pertains 
to their salvation in which the toiling masses of our 
people live. To hundreds of thousands of our fellow- 



346 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON- 

countrymen Almighty God is practically an unknown 
Being, except as the substance of a hideous oath." 
Who then will dare to deny that England richly de- 
serves the unenviable title of the land of infidelity ? 

Yet, notwithstanding their schism, their heresy, 
their infidelity, and their agnosticism, many English- 
men have still the folly or the effrontery to claim that 
they are yet the one true Church, or at least a branch 
of the Catholic Church, that their ministers are real 
priests and that their bishops have come down in un- 
broken succession from the Apostles. It is very hard 
to understand how any intelligent people can honestly 
entertain such sentiments. It would be just as reason- 
able for Lucifer and his followers to claim that they 
are still angels in good standing since their fall from 
heaven. "How art thou fallen from grace, O Lucifer! 
So have the Enghsh people fallen away from the true 
faith, though they seem to reahze it not. 

Holy Scripture teUs us that "what God has joined 
together no man may put asunder." How then can 
our Enghsh Protestants ever conceive that they may 
with impunity thrust aside the Pope whom our Saviour 
Himself made the head of His Church, overthrow the 
order which Christ has established, deny the doc- 
trines which Our Divine Master has taught, defy the 
Church which He has instituted, and yet remain in 
the very same state of grace and friendship with God 
as before? We may be very certain that God ^m\\ 
not permit the Church founded by His Divine Son, 
nor the Pope, whom He placed over it, to be set aside 
so 'easily. Wnen, therefore, the English Church cast 



' TB-E CELT ABOVE THE SAXON cii^^ 

off her allegiance to the Pope she cut off her own head 
and became a headless trunk. It is vain for Protes- 
tants to say that though separated from the Pope they 
are still in union with Christ Who is the Real Head of 
the Church. Christ is the Head of the Church, it is 
true, but the invisible Head. However, as the Church 
is a visible society, she must also have a visible liead, 
for a visible body must always have a visible head, 
otherwise it would be incomplete. Nevertheless, it 
should be well understood that there are not two sep- 
arate heads over the Church, for the visible and in- 
Tisible are morally one and the same. Christ and the 
Pope are not divided. The Pope is only the Vicar of 
Christ on earth and the successor of St. Peter, the 
first Pope, whom Our Saviour, before departing from 
this life commissioned to feed His lambs and His sheep, 
that is to rule and govern all the Christian people 
throughout the world. So, just as in the days of old, 
the savage tyrant Atilla saw behind the Pope an angel 
with a fiery sword, in a similar manner, if the English 
people could only open the eyes of their soul, they 
might behold behind Pope Pius X. our Divine Lord 
Himself. Consequently it is utterly impossible to 
separate from the Pope and continue in union with 
Christ. Hence, when the Church of England re- 
nounced her allegiance to the Pope in the sixteenth 
century, by that very act in one moment she severed 
her union with Christ also. But what becomes of 
those who separate from Jesus? He Himself tells 
us in John XV.-4: "I am the vine; you are the branches, 
fee that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same shall 



24S THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

bring forth much fruit. But if anyone abide not in 
Me, he shall be cast forth as a withered branch/' 

It was thus that England fell away from the one, 
true Church. She was indeed once a flourishing 
branch of the CathoHc Church, but she withered away, 
fell off the main tree, and was broken into a hundred 
fragments, so that to-day, she can be regarded neither 
as the Catholic Church nor even as a branch of it. 
She certainly cannot be recognized as the Catholic 
Church, because there is a positive contradiction be- 
tween the words Enghsh and Catholic. The term 
Catholic is derived from a Greek word which means 
universal, or spread over the whole world. But the 
English Church is not by any means spread over tlie 
whole universe. It is spread over a large portion of 
the earth, it is true, but is still very far from being a 
world-wide reUgion. It has not a single foot-hold in 
the Continent of Europe nor in the whole of Asia 
outside of India. In fact it is entirely confined to 
England and her colonies. Moreover, it is split up 
into so many different sects that it hardly deserves 
the appellation of a Church at all. In the United 
States alone there are one hundred and fifty different 
petty Protestant sects, most of them off -shoots of the 
Church of England, so that it well merits the title of 
the Camp of Babel and Confusion. 

On the contrary, the real Catholic Church which 
recognizes the Pope as its head flourishes wherever 
the English Church exists, and moreover, in every 
island and continent under the sun. It is at home 
everywhere. It is a stranger nowhere, and to-day its 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 249 

adherents number 300,000,000 souls, whereas all the 
Protestant denominations taken together scarcely ex- 
ceed 100,000,000, so that there are three Catholics to 
one Protestant of every sect and creed. It is perfectly 
clear, therefore, that the EngUsh Church has no right 
whatever to the title of Catholic. 

Nevertheless, it is highly amusing to witness the 
agitation going on at the present time among our An- 
glican friends regarding a change of name for their 
Church. Many would Uke to drop the name Protes- 
tant entirely and boldly assume the title of Catholic. 
But that would be a very bad sign indeed. It would 
be an acknowledgment that they are ashamed of their 
name, and when people are ashamed of their name 
it shows, as Shakespeare says, that ''there is something 
horrid in Denmark." 

But I suppose that England must be true to her old 
traditions of robbery and spoHation. She does not 
consider it sufficient to have despoiled so many nations 
of their country and independence. So she would 
now Kke to steal the glorious title of the one true 
Church. But this would not be the first time that 
heretical sects endeavored to do that. Fifteen cen- 
turies ago, the Donatists and the Arians claimed to be 
the only true CathoUcs, but they have long since passed 
away and the Catholic Church still lives. 

If the Enghsh Church, therefore, ever really does 
assume the name of Catholic she wiU only make herself 
ridiculous before the world. Everybody will say that 
it is an unwarranted assumption. It will only show 
up her heresy and schism in a still more glaring Hght 



25© THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

and manifest to ail mankind how vain and hollow are 
her pretensions. She has lately been putting on great 
airs over the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Bap- 
tists, and other Protestant sects, whom she regards 
as heretics and not at all in the same category as her- 
self. But if ever she usurps the title of Catholic 
all these honest non-Catholics will laugh at her absurd 
vanity and convict her of being exactly on the same 
level with themselves. 

Members of the true fold can only pity this spiritual 
blindness of the Anglican Church, because far from 
being the Catholic Church, she is no longer even a 
branch of it. Since the very first ages of Christianity, 
two things that cut off all membership with the true 
Church were heresy and schism. Consequently, 
when England fell into schism, in the reign of Henr\ 
VIII., and into heresy in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 
she broke the last link that united her to the Catholic 
Church. Hence she has been ever since in the sanie 
condition as the Arians, the Nestorians, the Donatists, 
the Pelagians, the Manichaens, and other heretics of 
ancient times or the adherents of the Schismatic Greek 
Church of the present day. 

But the Anglicans are in a worse plight than even 
the Greek Schismatics, because the latter, though her- 
etics and schismatics have real priests and bishops, 
who may validly offer up for them the Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass and administer to them the Sacraments, 
at least at the hour of death. But the English Church 
has neither. real priests nor real bishops, because her 
so-called bishops have never been validly consecrated 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 251 

and consequently the ministers wliom they pretended 
to ordain are not genuine priests, but only a counter- 
feit. Only quite recently this question was definitely 
settled forever by the late Pope Leo XIII. If he had 
only decided that the AngUcan Church had a vaUdly 
ordained priesthood and a validly consecrated episco- 
pate, the whole EngUsh people might have then come 
over, bag and baggage, to join the CathoHc Church. 
But, even for the sake of gaining a whole nation, the 
great Pontiff could not acknowledge the validity of 
AngUcan orders, because away back in the time of 
Queen Elizabeth, the line of ApostoHc succession was 
broken, for Parker, who consecrated all the so-called 
bishops of the EngUsh Reformed Church had not 
been vaUdly consecrated himself and therefore could 
not vaUdly consecrate others. 

In order to have a bishop vaUdly consecrated two 
things are absolutely essential. In the first place, 
the consecrating prelate must have been vaUdly con- 
secrated himself. In the second place, he must employ 
the proper formula in consecrating the new bishop. 
Now it is very doubtful if Barlow, who consecrated 
Parker had ever been consecrated himself. The 
general beUef is that he was only a bishop-elect who 
had not yet received his consecration when he at- 
tempted to consecrate Parker. But a still greater 
defect in the consecration of Parker was that the 
wrong formula was employed. This was the form of 
consecration found in the Ordinal of Edward VI. 
Even the AngUcans themselves soon afterwards ac- 
knowledged the invaUdity of this formula, for Queen 



352 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Elizabeth declared that by virtue of her supremacy as 
head of the Church she supplied whatever defects were 
in the ritual, and more than fifty years afterwards the 
form of consecration was changed entirely in the Eng- 
lish Ritual. But is not this a tacit avowal that the 
first formula was iiivahd ? As a result all the clergy- 
men of the EngUsh Church to-day, from the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury down to the humblest minister, 
are only laymen pure and simple, arrayed in clerical 
garb. 

Not only has England proved unfaithful to the 
Church instituted by Christ, but she has hkewise re- 
jected many of the Saviour's teachings. If St. Aug- 
ustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, were to rise 
from the dead to-day and revisit his former diocese, 
he would say to the present incumbent of that See: 
"You are not my successor, for I and my successors 
were in union with the Pope and acknowledged his 
supremacy. We also beUeved in the Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass, the Sacrament of Confession, the doc- 
trine of Purgatory, the Blessed Virgin Mary's inter- 
cessory power, the invocation of the saints, and the 
veneration of their reHcs. We also insisted on the 
sanctity of the marriage bond and taught most em- 
phatically that there was no such thing as divorce; 
but all these things you have denied. You are now 
striving to restore Confession and the Mass, but it is 
too late, for you have no longer a priesthood, and with- 
out priests it is impossible to have sacrifice or Sacra- 
ments. You are now endeavoring to enact against 
divorce, laws almost as stringent as those of the Cath- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 253 

olic Church, but is not this a sign that your legislation 
on that subject hitherto has been all wrong ? In fact, 
the divorce of Henry VIII. was the original sin of 
your Church, the very cause of its origin, and the very 
foundation of your creed. Why have you proved so 
unfaithful to the doctrines which I taught you?" 

How different has been the conduct of the ever- 
faithful Irish from that of this land of infidelity! It 
is true poor Erin, as a reward for her fidelity, seems 
to have so far received nothing but sufferings, whilst 
faithless England has met with the greatest prosperity. 
But that is the very best proof of the existence of a 
future state of rewards and punishments, where 
wrongs will be righted, where the wicked will receive 
their just chastisements and the just their due recom- 
pense. 

Ireland's afSictions may be only blessings in dis- 
guise from the hand of God. There is no doubt that 
her persecution by Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell 
filled the courts of heaven with Irish saints, and if 
people still retain their terrestrial language in the celes- 
tial regions, for many years afterwards there must 
have been more Irish spoken in heaven than all other 
languages together. There is one place at least where 
the Celt is above the Saxon. That is in heaven, 
whence the Irish martyrs now look down upon their 
English persecutors, and we may be certain that a 
humble peasant from Erin would not change places 
with a sovereign of England. Now they all realize 
the truth of Our Lord's words: "Blessed are the poor 
and blessed are they that suffer persecution for jus- 



254 THE CELT AB0VE:^THE SAXON 

tice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," but 
''Woe to those who now laugh for they shall mourn 
and weep." 

On the other hand, God may be rewarding the Eng- 
lish with temporal prosperity as a recompense for 
whatever good they may have accomplished here be- 
low. There is no doubt that England has conferred 
upon mankind some of the greatest blessings of civil- 
ization. If we were indebted to her for nothing else 
but the steam-engine and the railway we should owe 
her a great debt of gratitude. Perhaps, therefore, 
as God cannot reward Englishmen in the next world 
because of their great infidelity to Him, He is requiting 
them for the benefits which they have bestowed on 
humanity in this life. But that is the only reward 
which they shall ever receive. As Our Lord Himself 
said : "Amen I say to you, they have received their re- 
ward." 

Yet it must be remembered that temporal prosperity 
does not always come from God. It is sometimes the 
result of dishonesty. In fact it is sometimes the wages 
of sin and of infideHty to God. Did not Satan himself 
once offer to give our Saviour all the kingdoms of the 
world if he would kneel down and adore him ? How 
much of England's prosperity comes from her own 
industry, how much as a reward from God, how much 
from her dishonesty and spoliation, and how much 
from an evil source we are not prepared to say. But 
it is certain that the EngHsh frequently allege that 
their religion is a great drawback upon the Irish 
people, that it checks their progress, and prevents 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 955 

them from making headway in the great commercial 
struggle of the age. There may be some truth in this. 
There is no doubt that a nation without any conscience 
or any religion has a great advantage over a conscien- 
tious, religious people like the Irish. As the poet 
Shakespeare says: "It is conscience that makes cow- 
ards of us all." It is certain that the ten command- 
ments of God and the six precepts of the Church ex- 
ercise a wholesome moral influence over our race. 
If the Irish had no conscience and no religion, they 
would be much better able to compete with the un- 
scrupulous Anglo-Saxon. 

Yet, who knows but England may soon be punished 
for all her wickedness and Ireland amply rewarded 
for her fidelity, even in this world? Iniquity shall 
not always triumph, nor virtue be forever trampled 
under foot, even in this life. The Lord never intended 
that His faithful children should be ever the foot-stool 
of unbelievers on this earth. ''No! No! God is just." 
We shall, therefore, in our final chapter, cast a pros- 
pective glance over "The Future of the Celt and the 
Saxon." 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Future of the Celt and the Saxon. 

GOD alone knows the future and we make no 
claim to be a prophet or a clairvoyant who 
can foresee things to come. Yet, as Our 
Saviour says in the Gospel, every intelligent man 
should be able to "read the signs of the times." But 
all signs seem to indicate that England is on the down- 
ward path, that a new day of freedom is dawning for 
Ireland, and that the time is not far distant when she 
will once more take her place among the nations of 
the earth. 

The best way to judge the future is by the past. 
Now we know from history that every nation has had 
its rise, and its fall, its day of glory and its time of de- 
cay. A nation is like an individual — it is born, grows 
strong, lives for some centuries until it has reached 
its allotted time, and then dies. That has been the 
history of all the great nations and governments of 
ancient times. Babylon, Greece, and Rome were 
once very powerful monarchies and republics, but 
where are they to-day ? They are trodden down in the 
dust. They flourished for a few centuries, then they 
faded away like a flower in the Autumn and perished. 
Scarcely one of these mighty powers endured for a 
thousand years. But England has already outlived 
that period. In the natural course of events, there- 
fore, the time of her dissolution must be close at hand. 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 257 

As the proverb says; "Coming events cast their 
shadows before." But there are very many shadows 
indeed now overhanging England, portending grave 
calamities for the future. The late Lord Salsbury, 
during the recent Spanish-American War, once sneer- 
ingly spoke of Spain as ''a decaying power." Yet 
there is no power in Europe to-day that shows more 
unmistakable signs of decay than England herself. 

The first alarming sign of England's decay is the 
notable decrease of her trade and commerce during 
the last few years. The Germans and Americans are 
fast driving them out of all the markets of the world. 
In fact, during the late Boer War, American firms in 
competition with the British were awarded many con- 
tracts for building bridges in South Africa, though 
naturally there was much murmuring amongst Eng- 
lish mechanics, because their own government em- 
ployed foreigners in preference to themselves. 

Indeed, America can now undersell England in her 
own markets, and American goods are sold cheaper 
in Great Britain than the English can manufacture 
merchandise of the same quality at home. A very 
amusing instance of this was recently brought to light. 
A certain American clergyman of English procUvities, 
whilst travelling abroad, thought he would bring home 
with him a nice pair of imported shoes — real English, 
you know. So he went into a shoe store in London, 
but imagine his surprise when the salesman brought 
him a pair of shoes marked ''Brockton, Mass." 
''Well!" said he, "I guess I can get shoes like these 
much nearer to me at home, where I shall not have to 



2S8 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

pay any duty or tariff on them," and he abruptly left 
the store. 

But that is not the only business in which England 
is falHrig behind. Still more noticeable is her deca- 
dence in the iron industry. There was a time when 
England was the great iron and steel producing power 
of the world, and Sheffield steel was famous through- 
out the universe, but now all that is changed. In a 
special despatch to The Boston Herald from its Eng- 
lish correspondent, July 17, 1904, an American trav- 
elling salesman relates how there was recently held in 
England a conference of the Midland Iron Trade As- 
sociation of the City of Birmingham, the home of 
Joseph Chamberlain, and this meeting resolved itself 
into a conclave of lamentation over depressed business 
conditions. It was openly declared that there was no 
demand for either iron or steel, and that prices were 
unremunerative, competition keen, and money very 
difficult to obtain. Every branch of the industry re- 
ported depression. The iron-masters of Great Britain 
appeared to be suffering from a bad fit of the blues. 

Figures of the trade statement for the ffi"st six 
months of the year show decrease in exports of iron 
and steel manufactures compared with the same pe- 
riod in 1903. In 1903, the United States led with a 
production of 18,000,000 tons of pig iron, Germany 
was second with an output of 10,000,000 tons, and 
Great Britain with about 9,000,000 tons to her credit. 
But in 1883, twenty years before. Great Britain pro- 
duced 8,490,000 tons, the United States 4,595,000 tons, 
and Germany 3,680,000 tons. In other words, Great 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 259 

Britain has stood practically stationary, while Ger- 
many has neariy doubled, and the United States has 
neariy quadrupled in iron producing capacity. 

With steel, the results are nearly the same. From 
1883 to 1903 Great Britain's steel output increased 
from 2,000,000 to 5,800,000 tons, Germany from 
1,094,000 tons to 4,849,000 tons, and that of the 
United States from 1,655,000 to 15,000,000 tons. 
Thus it may be seen how far England has fallen be- 
hind Germany and America even in her favorite in- 
dustry. 

But far worse for England than the decay of her 
commerce is the dreadful deterioration of EngUsh 
manhood during the past century. This is all due to 
her false system of civilization. England has built 
up her civilization on an unstable foundation and now 
it is tottering to the ground. With a total disregard 
of God and of religion, she has made temporal pros- 
perity the basis of her civilization, and taught her 
citizens that the one aim in hfe worth living for was to 
become rich and amass wealth. As a result there was 
a grand rush among farmers and laborers to with- 
draw from the pure air of the country, to abandon the 
healthful exercise of cultivating the soil, and to crowd 
into the cities, so that they might become mer- 
chants, traders, and business men, in order that thus 
they might become rich quickly. The consequence was 
that the country was deserted, the cities became con- 
gested, and people were forced to live together like 
animals in a stable, as we have observed in a previous 
chapter. 



26o THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Being thus deprived of fresh air and wholesome ex- 
ercise, no wonder that the manhood of England has 
suffered a notable deterioration! The Royal Com- 
mission on Physical Training in its recent investiga- 
tions discovered some startling facts which must 
serve as a rude awakening to British statesmen. Ac- 
cording to this committee, during the last thirty years, 
the English people have greatly deteriorated in phys- 
ical constitution and the cities have bred an anaemic, 
degenerate class who can no longer fill the places of 
the Englishmen of former days. The average Eng- 
lishman of the present day is greatly inferior in stature, 
in weight, and in physique, even to those of a single 
generation ago. In 1889, the proportion of men in 
the English army measuring less than five feet, five 
inches in height was 106 per 1,000, in 1899 it was 132 
per 1,000. In 1889 the proportion of men measur- 
ing less than t,^) inches around the chest was 17 per 
1,000, in 1899 it was 23 per 1,000. In 1874 only 159 
per 1,000 weighed less than 120 pounds, but in 1900 
the proportion was 301 per 1,000. 

Do not these figures tell only too plainly a dreadful 
tale of degeneracy in the manhood of England? 
What wonder that Englishmen of to-day have no 
longer the courage, the bravery, or the physical en- 
durance of their forefathers, who built up the British 
Empire ! It was only lately, during the Boer War, that 
this dreadful truth was brought thoroughly home to 
the mind of England. Colonel Blake assures us that 
besides the colonial troops, the only English soldiers 
who were any credit to their country were a few bri- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 261 

gades of yeomanry, who may be called the relics of 
the old English farmers. The rest of the British sol- 
diers were a class of degenerates and one Boer could 
put to flight from two to ten of them. English states- 
men must have then realized how true were the words 
of Goldsmith: 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay; 
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade — 
A breath may make them, as a breath has made; 
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 

In what a dreadful state of physical weakness and 
decay must England be, when a mere handful of Boer 
farmers could give her such a fright as she has not ex- 
perienced since the time of Napoleon I.! During 
her war in South Africa, many comic American Jour- 
nals had some very amusing cartoons representing 
John Bull as a poor sick man lying helpless on his 
bed, with all the nations of Europe assembled as phy- 
sicians in solemn consultation around his couch. One, 
after feeling of his pulse, pronounced his disease pal- 
pitation of the heart, another declared that it was a case 
of tuberculosis, a third asserted that in his opinion 
it was a bad case of valvular heart trouble, but the 
majority of the doctors diagnosed it as a compUca- 
tion of diseases. 

But, as John Bull was a hardy old man, he finally 
rallied from his infirmity, though with his constitu- 



262 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

tion completely shattered. If the strain had been a 
little more severe, if instead of being confronted by 
the Boers, England had been arrayed against the 
Russians or the Japanese, where would she be to-day ? 
John Bull was very wise indeed not to go to war with 
Russia but to push that young, vigorous giant Japan 
in his place ; for it may truly be said that poor England 
has a great many maladies, anyone of which must 
finally prove fatal, but worst of all, three valves 
of her heart are affected. We refer to her three dread- 
ful vices of intemperance, immoraHty, and infanti- 
cide. As we have observed already, 60,000 people 
die of intoxication in England every year, she has 
600,000 habitual criminals, and over a thousand chil- 
dren are murdered in Britain annually for the insur- 
ance money. Yes, and these unnatural parents 
would coin their children's blood into money and sell 
their very souls if they could in order to get rich. 
But how can England long endure such a dreadful 
strain as that, especially when we take into consider- 
ation that her birth rate is growing lower every year ? 
In 1866 the birth rate in England was 35 per 1,000; 
but in 1891 it had fallen to 31; in 1897 it had sunk 
to 29, and in 1903 to 28 per 1,000. 

If the English were bent on overthrowing their 
empire, they could discover no more effective way 
than that which they are pursuing at present. When 
we see a man living riotously, wasting his strength 
in dissipation and debauchery, no matter how strong 
he is, no matter what a fine physique he possesses, 
we know that before very long that prodigal is bound 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 263 

to collapse. So, likewise, when we behold a nation 
squandering its powers, we realize that it is soon about 
to fall. 

It is thus that the English have been undermining 
the very foundation of the British Empire, by destroy- 
ing the family; for the family is the foundation of the 
State, and once the foundation is undermined the 
whole civil edifice falls to the ground. There was an. 
old proverb among the Pagans: '^Whom the Gods 
would destroy they first make mad." So for turning 
away from the true faith and forsaking his holy relig- 
ion, as St. Paul says in- his epistle to the Romans : 
"God gave (the English people) up to the desires of 
their heart and delivered them up to a reprobate 
sense. So they became vain in their thoughts and 
their fooHsh heart was darkened, for professing them- 
selves to be wise they became fools." Indeed the 
worst enemy of the British Empire, the greatest dy- 
namiter, or the fiercest anarchist could not do it half 
the injury which the English themselves are inflict- 
ing upon it by the dreadful sin of infanticide. Gib- 
bon, who wrote the "History of the Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Empire" tells us that the immediate 
cause of the downfall of that great empire was the 
crime of infanticide; because on account of the destruc- 
tion of the family, Rome was no longer able to main- 
tain a native army in the field to defend her vast pos- 
sessions. Consequently she was obliged to hire 
strangers to fight her battles, — but when a nation has 
to have recourse to mercenaries to defend her, then 
her hour has come. 



264 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

If the English continue a few years more murder- 
ing their children, they, too, will have to rely upon 
mercenaries to wage war for them, and then perhaps 
in our own day some scribe may write the "History 
of the Decline and Fall of the British Empire." But 
as the proverb says: "England's difi&culty is Ireland's 
opportunity." No Irishman would like to see the 
downfall of England or wish her evil, if she would 
only do justice to Ireland. But if Erin's freedom 
can be procured in no other way than by the over- 
throw of the British Empire, very few Irishmen would 
consider it a sin to say: "God speed it!" This natu- 
rally suggests to us the question so frequently heard: 
"Will Ireland ever be free?" 

A great many good, honest Irishmen and Irish- 
Americans despair of Ireland ever regaining her in- 
dependence. They declare that she has been strug- 
ghng for freedom now during hundreds of years, 
but in vain. So the Irish people would be much 
more prosperous and happy if they stopped their 
agitation and settled down to business Hke the Eng- 
lish. 

I have not the least doubt that the Irish would be 
far better situated from a worldly standpoint if they 
had lain down to England long ago; but who would 
praise them the more for their serviHty? On the 
contrary, who does not admire a Hberty-loving people. 
Did not the American patriot, Patrick Henry, render 
his name immortal by that magnificent outburst of 
patriotism: "Give me liberty or give me death"? 
It is quite true that Ireland has been battling for free- 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 265 

dom for centuries; but should we not applaud her the 
more for her unconquerable spirit ? It was only after 
a constant warfare of seven hundred years that the 
Spaniards expelled the Moors from Spain and re- 
gained the independence of their country. Yet Ire- 
land has been fighting England for only a similar 
period and there are many indications that her ef- 
forts will soon be crowned with success. 

It is manifestly unfair therefore to allege, as some 
well-meaning people do, that the agitation for Home 
Rule is a money-making scheme of the Irish members 
of Parliament, who want to make an easy living at 
the expense of their credulous countrymen, and to be- 
come rich from the American contributions to the 
Irish Parliamentary fund. In fact, in some quarters 
it is asserted that the Irish in America have sent over 
to Ireland enough money to purchase the whole island 
four times over. 

I have not the least doubt that, just as in all other 
great political and social movements, there are some 
crafty hypocrites who are agitating for Irish Home 
Rule, not through love of country but for their own 
selfish purposes. Nevertheless, it is equally certain 
that the great majority of Irish parliamentarians are 
honest, sincere men, many of whom have proved 
their devotion to Ireland by suffering long imprison- 
ment for her sake. Where can we find a better test 
than that of the true patriot ? 

It is likewise true that the Irish in America have 
contributed a great deal to the Irish parUamentary 
fund, yet, without at all discrediting their generosity, 



266 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

it may truthfully be said that the amount which they 
have subscribed has been grossly exaggerated. In 
fact, poor Ireland herself, poverty-stricken though 
she is, has contributed more than the whole United 
States. No doubt it required all the resources of 
the Irish leaders to provide for the poor, evicted 
tenants in Ireland, to maintain an active army of 
Irish parliamentarians in constant attendance in the 
House of Commons to fight Ireland's battles, and to 
conduct an active campaign against Irish landlords, 
until by the recent Land Purchase Act, landlordism 
was practically abolished in Ireland. All this has 
been done by peaceful agitation. One step more, 
and Ireland will have Home Rule! 

Nevertheless, I am firmly convinced that the Irish 
can never win their complete independence except 
by the sword. No nation that was enslaved ever 
regained its freedom except by war. It was thus 
that Holland threw off the yoke of Spain, Greece 
liberated herself from the shackles of Turkey, and 
the United States burst the bonds of England. It 
may seem strange to have a priest, who is supposed 
to be a man of peace, talking of war, but Our Saviour 
Himself, the Prince of Peace, once told His disciples 
to sell their very coats and purchase a sword. I do 
not believe that God ever intended faithful Ireland 
to be forever the slave of perfidious Britain. As the 
poet has so well said: 

"Be sure the great God never planned 
For slumbering slaves a home so grand," 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 267 

There is no reason in the world, at the present day, 
why the Irish people could not recover their indepen- 
dence. As we have already observed, John Bull has 
heart failure, but Erin's heart is sound, for the Irish 
people still look on the family as a gift from God, and 
the family is the foundation of the state. It is true 
the population of England is 35,000,000, whilst Ire- 
land has now only 4,500,000 — a mere handful in com- 
parison. Yet when a man has heart disease, the 
bigger his body the more unwieldly he becomes. On 
the contrary, we know how marvellous are the recup- 
erative powers of the Irish race; for in the time of 
Cromwell the population of Ireland was reduced to 
500,000; but two centuries later, at the outbreak of 
the famine, in 1847, i^ ^^^^ increased to 8,000,000. 
In all Kkelihood, the Land Purchase Bill will accom- 
pHsh wonders to regenerate Ireland, and it would 
not be astonishing if, in the next twenty years, owing 
to emigration from America and natural increase, 
the population of Ireland would be doubled. 

Yet, when we consider that the population of Lon- 
don alone is greater than that of all Ireland, it is 
scarcely possible that the remnant of the Irish race 
stiU remaining in their native land can ever recover 
their freedom unaided. They must have the assist- 
ance of their kinsmen abroad. The Irish in America 
are the only ones who are in a position to-day to free 
their native land. All that they need is the oppor- 
tunity and that will come, if they only watch for it, 
perhaps sooner than they expect. 

England's sun is setting, her day is past, and her 



268 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

night is approaching. Two great clouds are now 
hanging over her — Russia in the East and the United 
States in the West, and between the two of them she 
will be ground to powder some day. The time may 
not be far distant when Russia will seize upon India, 
the United States will annnex Canada, AustraHa will 
declare its independence, and then England will be 
Hke a withered tree that has been stripped of its 
branches. 

That is the real secret why England has such a 
dread of the Russian Bear and embroiled him in the 
present war in the East in order to distract his attention 
from India. That is also the secret why she wants to be 
on such good terms with the United States and wishes 
to form an alHance with her, so that she may keep 
her hands off Canada . This is the very best evidence 
that England is fully conscious of her own weakness. 
Whilst she was young and vigorous she never sought 
for aUiances, but boasted of her ''splendid isolation." 
However, the late Boer War showed her up terribly 
in all her feebleness and decay. So now she would 
like to lean on the strong arm of Young America. 
But if only our "EngHsh cousins" knew how their 
efforts at alliance are caricatured in the American 
press, they would cease all talk forever of an alliance 
with the United States. Only a few days ago, there 
was a famous cartoon of this nature in The Boston 
Herald. It represented King Edward VII. tickling 
Uncle Sam with the feather of English flattery, say- 
ing: ''Your navy is great," but Uncle Sam's reply 
was: "He thinks he'll tickle me into an alliance with 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 269 

him." So Americans are now convinced that Eng- 
land would have to be kicked into a quarrel with 
them, because she knows what would happen if she 
came into collision with the United States. 

Nevertheless, it is morally certain that two great 
naval powers like America and Great Britain will 
sooner or later come into conflict over Canada, the 
Panama Canal, the partition of China or some other 
bone of contention. Then the United States navy 
will knock all the British navy into fragments, for 
the American ships are all modern vessels, whilst the 
English navy will be proved as degenerate as her 
army. The United States is undoubtedly the only 
power that has the ships and the resources to wrest 
the command of the sea from England. Sometimes 
we find fault because the United States is making 
such an effort to build up her navy, but that may be 
the very means which the Providence of God is de- 
signing to scourge England for all the injustice and 
robbery that she has inflicted on Ireland and all the 
innocent blood she has shed. 

Thus Ireland's opportunity may come before she 
is aware of it. If a man like Roosevelt is then in the 
presidential chair he will know well that the best way 
to fight England is to send an army of 50,000 Irish- 
men into Canada to strike a blow at their old enemy. 
After the EngHsh navy has been defeated at sea, he 
will send 50,000 more Irish-Americans to kindle the 
flames of revolt in Ireland and keep the English busy 
there. Once the English navy was destroyed, England 
could not hold Ireland in subjection for twenty-four 



270 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

hours, and the whole British Empire would come 
crumbling to the ground. Then would be fulfilled 
for England the prophetic words of St. John concern- 
ing the fall of Rome, Apoc. XVIII. -2 : 

"(England) the great is fallen, is fallen and is be- 
come the habitation of devils and the hold of every 
unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean and 
hateful burd." 

''And I heard another voice from heaven saying: 
Go out from her My people that you be not partakers 
of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues; 
for her sins have reached into heaven and the Lord 
hath remembered her iniquities." 

"Render to her as she also hath rendered to you; 
and double unto her double according to her works; 
in the cup wherein she hath mingled, mingle ye double 
imto her." 

"As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in 
dehcacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to 
her; because she saith in her heart: I sit a queen and 
am no widow, and sorrow I shall not see." 

"Therefore shall her plague come in one day, 
death and mourning and famine, and she shalt be 
burnt with the fire, because God is strong Who shall 
judge her." 

"And the kings of the earth shall weep over her 
when they shall see the smoke of her burning, stand- 
ing afar off for fear of her torments saying: 'Alas! 
alas! that great city (London), that mighty city; for 
in one hour is thy judgment come.' " 

"And the merchants of the earth shall weep and 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 271 

mourn for her saying: Alas! alas! that great city 
which was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet 
and was gilt with gold and precious stones, and pearls, 
for in one hour are so great riches come to nought." 

"And every ship-master and all marines that sail 
the sea stood afar off and cried, seeing the place of 
her burning, saying: What city is like to this great city ? 
And they cast dust upon their heads and cried weep- 
ing and mourning, saying: Alas! alas! that great city 
wherein all were made rich, that had ships at sea by 
reason of her prices, for in one hour she is made deso- 
late." 

"And the voice of harpers and of musicians shall be 
found no more in her, and the voice of the bridegroom 
and the voice of the bride shall be heard no more in 
her, for in her was found all the blood of saints and 
of all that were slain upon the earth." 

It is only when England is thus thoroughly hum- 
bled that she will return to the true faith — the faith 
of her fathers. Some authors claim that she will 
never be Catholic again, because she once threw away 
the true faith, which is a gift of God, and God's graces 
once rejected are never offered again. But, in reality, 
she did not cast away the faith, it was torn from her 
forcibly by Henry VIII . and Queen Elizabeth. In- 
deed it was only by a desperate struggle that it was 
wrenched away from her, after many English martyrs 
had lain down their life in its defence. Consequently 
there is still hope for England, because "the blood of 
martyrs is the seed of the Church." It is not surpris- 
ing therefore, that during the past century there has 



372 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

been a marked tendency among leading Englishmen 
to return to the bosom of the Catholic Church. It 
is well kno^vn how the Oxford Movement brought 
into the true fold some of the brightest, intellectual 
lights in all England, such as Cardinal Wiseman, 
Cardinal Newman, Cardinal Manning, Father Faber, 
and Henry George Ward. This started a regular ex- 
odus of converts from Anglicanism to Catholicity, so 
that the English Church became alarmed, fearing 
that she would be entirely deserted. Accordingly, she 
endeavored to make people believe that she herself 
was the true Church by stealing the livery of the 
Catholic Church, by introducing the Confessional and 
a blasphemous imitation of the Holy Sacrifice of the 
Mass, by calling her ministers priests, a name which 
she once hated, and by counterfeiting all the exter- 
nals of Catholicity as closely as possible. But all 
her artifices were in vain, for the tendency of Eng- 
lishmen Romewards is still undiminished, and only a 
few years ago Lord Halifax, of England, advocated a 
wholesale return of Anglicans to the Catholic Church. 
However, there is one great obstacle to the return 
of the whole British nation to the Catholic religion — 
that is pride. But how could the tiny mustard seed 
of the true faith take root on the barren rock of pride ? 
The English are still so puffed up with pride by reason 
of their great navy, their large army, and their mighty 
empire that all the missionaries in the world could 
not convert them. Indeed, they would not listen to the 
Voice of God Himself. Wherefore the Lord will de- 
stroy all these vanities which have stolen from Him the 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 273 

hearts of His people; and then England will realize 
the truth of the words which the prophet Isaias fore- 
told twenty-seven centuries ago, concerning the de- 
struction of Tyre: "Howl ye ships of the sea, for the 
house is destroyed from whence they were wont to 
come! Howl, ye inhabitants of the island! Who 
hath taken this counsel against (England), that was 
formerly crowned, whose merchants were princes, 
and her traders the nobles of the earth? The Lord 
of hosts hath designed it to pull down the pride of 
all glory and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones 
of the earth." 

When England has been thus thoroughly humbled 
in the dust then she will begin to commune with her- 
self Uke the prodigal son, saying: "I will arise and go 
to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and before thee: I am not worthy to 
be called thy child : make me as one of thy hired serv- 
ants." Thus will England one day return in contri- 
tion and penitence to the arms of the true Church, 
bewailing the day that she allowed Henry VIII. and 
the reformers of the sixteenth century to tear her from 
the center of Christian unity. Then will Holy Mother 
the Church rejoice, and kill the fatted calf, saying: 
"Let us eat and make merry, because my child was 
dead and is come to Ufe again, she was lost and is 
found." 

But the great question for Irishmen to answer is: 
Will they be prepared to take advantage of England's 
humiliation and win liberty and independence for 
themselves .'^ They should, therefore, everywhere 



274 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

organize, at home and abroad, in expectation of the 
great crisis, which undoubtedly is fast approaching. 
They must not remain passive and expect God to free 
their country, for the Lord generally allows nature to 
take its course, and entrusts the destinies of people 
to their own hands. Neither should they wait till 
Russia, France, or America will set them free, for 
then the nation which liberated them might seize their 
country for itself as a reward of its labor, as the 
United States retained the Philippines. But Ireland 
is not looking for a change of masters. A bigoted 
Vermont farmer might be just as bad a governor as 
any EugUsh Viceroy Ireland ever was, and might 
torture the Irish priests with the infamous "Water 
Cure" as Padro Augustinio was barbarously murdered 
in the PhiHppines, though to the eternal shame of the 
United States, his murderers have not yet been pun- 
ished for it. 

What the poet said centuries ago is just as true to- 
day as then: "Who would be free themselves must 
strike the blow." But a battle for freedom requires 
men, money, ships, arms, and ammunition. There 
are plenty of loyal hearts throbbing with love for 
dear, old Erin, and all that their possessors require 
is the necessary military and naval skill. But this 
may be easily procured in the State militia and the 
United States navy. Every Irishman or Irish-Amer- 
ican who is desirous to be serviceable hereafter to 
the land of his fathers should join one or the other 
of these great training schools for a year or two. The 
Hibernians and all other Irish societies should also 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 375 

form themselves into one great federation, with a cen- 
tral council and a central treasury. An excellent plan 
to raise funds would be to have every division of 
Hibernians curtail its expenses for refreshments at its 
weekly meetings. No reasonable person would find 
fault because the Irish have refreshments at their 
assembhes, if they were only served with moderation 
and not on the Lord's day. The Hibernians have just 
as much right to do so as the Germans, the English, 
and the Americans. Yet, if they saved up every week 
for patriotic purposes just half of what they expend for 
refreshments at their club-rooms, they would have a 
full treasury when the next opportunity comes to strike 
a blow for Ireland. People who have money may 
purchase arms and ammunition at any time. The 
South American Republics have likewise warships 
for sale at all times. If the Irish people had been 
only thus organized during the late Boer War, what 
an excellent opportunity they had to strike down the 
oppressor of their native land, to avenge the wrongs 
of their fathers, to put the Celt above the Saxon and 
the green above the red! But, notwithstanding all 
the talk and bluster of the Clan-na- Gaels and the 
Physical Force Society, they never lifted a hand. 
They made no attempt to prevent shiploads of Amer- 
ican mules from being transported over to South Africa, 
to trample down the liberties of the Boers, and they 
even permitted an English camp to be estabhshed 
near New Orleans in violation of American neutrality. 
The trouble was that there was no national organiza- 
tion, no responsible leaders, and no money in the treas- 



276 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

ury. Consequently the Irish missed a grand chance 
to humble their ancient foe. 

Let us hope that the next time England gets into 
difficulty they will be better prepared, and have their 
plan of campaign all mapped out. But of two things 
they must beware. In the first place, they must be 
careful not to violate the laws of the United States, 
for it would not be fair to introduce the quarrels of 
the Old World into this land of Hberty which welcomes 
to her arms the oppressed of all nations. Besides, 
any breach of international law would call down upon 
it the wrath of Uncle Sam. In the second place, the 
Irish leaders must be cautious not to allow their plans 
to fall into the hands of EngHsh spies, who pretend 
to be patriots, like the infamous Le Caron during the 
late Fenian invasion of Canada. To prevent such a 
fatality, it would be an excellent plan to have every 
Irish society graded like the Knights of Columbus and 
to admit to the higher degrees only the tried and true. 

We may rest assured that it will not be long before 
the Irish will have another opportunity to strike a 
blow at their traditional enemy, for a nation as grasp- 
ing and belligerent as England is certain to be in 
trouble soon again. Even now it would not be aston- 
ishing if she should come to blows with Russia, be- 
cause the Russian fleet fired upon her fishermen, mis- 
taking them for Japanese. Perhaps before we are 
aware of it, Russia and her ally, France, may be ar- 
rayed against England and Japan. That would 
give Ireland an opportunity to regain her indepen- 
dence such as was not presented to her since the War 



THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 277 

of the Roses. Indeed there is an Irish prophecy that 
it is Russia which will finally free Ireland by weaken- 
ing England. Accordingly, every Irishman and Irish- 
American should be ready at a moment's notice, Hke 
the Minute Men of America, in 1775, to 

''Unfurl Erin's flag! fling its folds to the breeze! 
Let it float o'er the land, let it flash o'er the seas! 
Lift it out of the dust — let it wave as of yore, 
WTien its chiefs with their clans stood around it and 

swore 
That never! no! never! while God gave them life 
And they had an arm and a sword for the strife, 
That never! no! never! that banner should yield, 
As long as the heart of a Celt was its shield; 
While the hand of a Celt had a weapon to wield, 
And his last drop of blood was unshed on the field. 

Lift it up! wave it high! 'tis as bright as of old! 

Not a stain on its green, not a blot on its gold, 

Tho' the woes and the wrongs of three hundred long 

years 
Have drenched Erin's Sunburst with blood and with 

tears! 
Though the clouds of oppression enshroud it in gloom, 
And around it the thunders of tyranny boom. 
Look aloft! look aloft! lo! the clouds drifting by 
There's a gleam through the gloom, there's a light in 

the sky, 
'Tis the sunburst resplendent — far flashing on high 
Erin's dark night is waning, her day-dawn is nigh! 



278 THE CELT ABOVE THE SAXON 

Lift it upl lift it up! the old Banner of Green! 
The blood of its sons has but brightened its sheen; 
What though the tyrant has trampled it down, 
Are its folds not emblazoned with deeds of renown? 
What though for ages it droops in the dust, 
Shall it droop thus forever? No! No! God is just! 
Take it up! take it up! from the tyrant's foul tread, 
Tet him tear the Green Flag — ^we will snatch its last 

shred, 
And beneath it we'll bleed, as our forefathers bled, 
And we'll vow by the dust in the graves of our dead. 
And we'll swear by the blood which the Briton has 

shed. 
And we'll vow by the wrecks which through Erin he 

spread, 
And we'll swear by the thousands who famished un- 
fed, 
Died down in the ditches, wild-howling for bread. 
And we'll vow by our heroes whose spirits have fled, 
And we'll swear by the bones in each coffinless bed 
That we'll battle the Briton through danger and dread; 
That we'll cHng to the cause which we glory to wed, 
'Till the gleam of our steel and the shock of our lead 
Shall prove to our foe that we meant what we said — 
That we'll lift up the green, and we'll tear down the 
red!" 



DEC 24 t904 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 342 060 4 



